Andrew J. Hostetler

Partnership, Singlehood, and the Lesbian and Gay Life Course: A Research Agenda

Despite considerable evidence suggesting that relational status is an important dimension of lesbian and gay experience over time, there has been little systematic research on the topic. This paper proposes an agenda for the future study of coupled and single lifestyles among lesbians and gay men. To date, gay and lesbian singles have been neglected altogether, and developmental research on same-sex couples has focused primarily on intrinsic, presumably invariant developmental processes, frequently overlooking the important contributions of historical change and cohort-specific social pressures to the formation of life-course pathways. Moreover, we lack good, basic descriptive data on the rates of gay singlehood versus participation in partnership, and on the myriad ways in which gay couples and singles construct their lives. Future research on relational status among lesbians and gay men must characterize and conceptualize this diversity, and place it within the larger context of a life-course approach that emphasizes both the material and symbolic implications of single or partnered lifestyles across time.

Marital and Family Satisfaction as a Function of Work–Family Demands and Community Resources Individual- and Couple-Level Analyses

This study uses individual- and couple-level analyses to examine the influence of work–family demands and community resources on marital and family satisfaction within a sample of dual-earner parents with dependent children (N = 260 couples, 520 individuals). Total couple work hours were strongly negatively associated with marital satisfaction for both fathers and mothers. Work hours may be best studied as a couple-level demand, and working shorter combined hours, if possible, may be a central component of a broader adaptive strategy. Negative work-to-family spillover was negatively associated with parents’ family satisfaction, but for mothers this relationship was mediated by negative affect and (marginally) by couple disagreements. Finally, fathers’ neighborhood friends emerged as an important resource for both fathers and mothers, suggesting gender differences in the role of community in the work–family interface and highlighting the need for further research of community-level resources.

Linking Life Course and Life Story

The emergence of a life course perspective in the study of human development has provided a means for addressing the interplay of lived experience and socio-historical context, and the intertwining of subjective and shared meanings that shape lives over developmental and historical time. Grounded in the pioneering work of social theorist Karl Mannheim (1928), the life course approach may be contrasted both with life-cycle perspectives, which have tended to focus on relatively invariant, age-graded stages or phases, and with life-span perspectives, which have typically not acknowledged the far-ranging impact of “generation units” spanning some number of contiguous birth-years (Mannheim, 1928) or cohort-generational factors (Elder, 1995, 1997; Kertzer, 1983; Troll, 1970). The life course perspective maintains that developmental pathways reflect the distinctive social and historical changes experienced by members of particular generations and cannot be understood apart from this social and historical context (Dannefer, 1984; Denzin, 1989; Elder, 1995, Settersten, 1999).

Community involvement, perceived control, and attitudes toward aging among lesbians and gay men.

A person-environment approach was used to explore the relationship between community involvement and attitudes toward aging among middle-age and older lesbians and gay men. Specifically, this study investigated the relationships between participation in gay community activities, perceived control, and aging-related concerns among two partially-overlapping convenience samples of middle-aged and older lesbians and gay men (N = 136). As expected, perceived control was negatively associated with aging concerns, while community involvement was surprisingly positively associated with the latter. Although the hypothesized interaction between control and community participation was not supported, exploratory analysis revealed an interaction between participation and a measure of autonomy in the single men sample. Specifically, the combination of high autonomy and low community participation was associated with the lowest levels of aging-related concern. Findings are discussed with respect to the implications of having aging-related concerns, the limitations of both control and community, and different possible pathways to positive aging.

Single by Choice? Assessing and Understanding Voluntary Singlehood Among Mature Gay Men

This study investigated what it means for mature gay men to be voluntary single from the perspective of both assessment and subjective experience. A convenience sample of 94 self-identified single gay men from a large midwestern city, ages 35 and over, completed a structured questionnaire that included the 15-item Adaptation to Single Status Measure. Twenty of these men also participated in semi-structured life-history interviews. Descriptive, item, and scale analyses indicated a discrepancy between the perception of oneself as “single by choice” and acceptance of and satisfaction with single status. Qualitative data indicated that voluntary singlehood is neither a salient identity nor an expression of primary control; rather, it is an idiosyncratic “narrative strategy” and a form of secondary control that preserves ego integrity. These findings are discussed with respect to their implications for the creation and maintenance of healthy, happy, single lifestyles and communities.

Motivated to seek help: Masculine norms and self-regulated motivation in self-help groups.

Endorsement of masculine norms has been identified as a factor contributing to men’s lower rates of seeking professional help for physical and emotional distress, compared with women. To better understand the mechanisms for men’s help seeking, in the present study, we applied the framework of self-determination theory (SDT), a theory of development and motivation, (Ryan & Deci, 2000b) to the domain of self-help groups (SHGs). To the SDT framework, we incorporated endorsement of the masculine norms for self-reliance and emotional control as predictors of motivation for help seeking. Data came from surveys completed by 160 attendees of SHGs hosted by the Self-Help and Recovery Exchange (SHARE!) of Los Angeles County. Structural equation analysis supported a model illuminating the links between endorsement of self-reliance and emotional control, autonomous self-regulation for help seeking, fulfillment of basic psychological needs, and well-being in the domain of SHGs.

Singlehood and Subjective Well-Being among Mature Gay Men: The Impact of Family, Friends, and of Being “Single by Choice”

The physical and mental health benefits of marriage and partnership are well established, for men in particular. By comparison, very little research has examined within-group differences in social support and well-being within the proportionately large population of single gay men. Employing structured interviews, this study employed Rasch analysis to examine family and friendship ties within a convenience sample of middle-aged and older single gay men (N = 94), and investigated relationships among social support, attitudes, and preferences related to singlehood, and subjective well-being (SWB). As anticipated, measures of social support from family, social support from friends, and adaptation to single status were independently associated with SWB. Unexpectedly, social support did not moderate the relationship between adaptation to single status and SWB, suggesting the possibility of a pathway to SWB for single gay men in the absence of substantial social support.