FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE: MARITAL TRANSITIONS AND SEXUAL LIFE IN MIDDLE AND OLDER AGE

Abstract Marital transitions have known implications for health and well-being. However, little research has examined the effects of such transitions on adults’ sexual lives. This study uses longitudinal data from the National Study of Midlife Development in the United States (1995–2014) to compare different marital status and transition groups’ sexual activity, satisfaction, control, and effort throughout mid-and-later life. Across all outcomes, effects of marital status/transitions were contingent upon baseline values of the outcome. Consistently married adults reported more frequent sexual activity, greater sexual satisfaction, and greater effort put into sexual life than other groups when baseline values of those outcomes were average or above-average; such group differences were reduced or reversed at below-average baseline values. Among the not-married, women reported significantly less sexual activity than men. The consistently divorced/separated, consistently widowed, newly divorced/separated, and newly widowed all reported greater control over sexual life at follow-up than the consistently married, when baseline sexual control was average and/or below-average. Lastly, women reported lesser effort put into sexual life at follow-up than men across all groups, accounting for baseline effort; these gender gaps were least pronounced among the consistently and newly married, and most pronounced among the newly widowed and newly divorced/separated. Overall, findings indicate that implications of marital transitions for midlife and older adults’ sexual lives depend upon both gender and pre-transition context. Marriage is not always beneficial for sexual life; rather, poor quality sexual lives during marriage can reduce opportunities for improvement that may arise with marital transitions, including divorce and widowhood.

Minority Stress Theory posits that specific minority stressors, such as internalized homophobia and outness, predict negative health outcomes in sexual minorities. There has been substantial work in addressing these stressors in young adult samples; however, less in known about older adults. Older sexual minorities were socialized in a time in which same-sex relations were considered deviant and illegal, and therefore, have been exposed to a lifetime of marginalization. Although there is evidence that minority stressors negatively impact health in older adults, many studies exclude a complete lifespan sample. The goal of this study was to collect a sample of individuals in same-sex relationships ranging in age from M = 40.93,SD = 15.87) and examine whether age correlates with outness and internalized homophobia. We found that older participants had higher degrees of outness (r = .21, p < .01) and less internalized homophobia (r = -.20, p < .01) resulting in less overall minority stress. We also analyzed different social resources that might explain the age-related decrease in minority stress and found that age was related to higher self-esteem (r = .24, p < .01). We tested whether self-esteem moderated the direct relationships between age and the minority stressors and found a significant interaction for internalized homophobia (B = .0175, p < .01), but not outness. Our findings provide support that older sexual minorities report less minority stress and more research is needed to explain what promotes these trends.  (1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) to compare different marital status and transition groups' sexual activity, satisfaction, control, and effort throughout mid-and-later life. Across all outcomes, effects of marital status/transitions were contingent upon baseline values of the outcome. Consistently married adults reported more frequent sexual activity, greater sexual satisfaction, and greater effort put into sexual life than other groups when baseline values of those outcomes were average or above-average; such group differences were reduced or reversed at below-average baseline values. Among the not-married, women reported significantly less sexual activity than men. The consistently divorced/separated, consistently widowed, newly divorced/ separated, and newly widowed all reported greater control over sexual life at follow-up than the consistently married, when baseline sexual control was average and/or belowaverage. Lastly, women reported lesser effort put into sexual life at follow-up than men across all groups, accounting for baseline effort; these gender gaps were least pronounced among the consistently and newly married, and most pronounced among the newly widowed and newly divorced/separated. Overall, findings indicate that implications of marital transitions for midlife and older adults' sexual lives depend upon both gender and pre-transition context. Marriage is not always beneficial for sexual life; rather, poor quality sexual lives during marriage can reduce opportunities for improvement that may arise with marital transitions, including divorce and widowhood.

THE IMPACT OF SEXUAL FLUIDITY AND SOCIAL SUPPORT ON EGO INTEGRITY IN OLDER ADULTS
The population of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) Americans is growing as the number of older adults "come out. " While we know that "coming out" later in life impacts the experience of aging, little research has examined ways in which social support and sexual fluidity influence ego integrity in older adults. The present study investigated ego integration, changed sexual behavior, and perceived social support in adults 45 years of age and older who had been in a long-term relationship with the opposite sex prior to "coming out" as LGB. The average of participants was 61 years, sixty-eight percent (N = 43) were currently married or in a domestic partnership, and eighty-six percent (N = 54) identified as Caucasian. Individuals were recruited to participate in the survey utilizing online social media. Results (N = 63) suggested that those whose behavior was more sexually fluid were least ego integrated. Timing of "coming out" LGB, Early (44 and younger) versus Late (after the age of 45) impacted the degree of sexual fluidity and perceived social support. Results indicated those who "came out" Late were more sexually fluid and were less fearful of "coming out. " The most significant result revealed social support from significant others to be most impactful compared to friends and family. This research expands on the challenges of those who are aging in a non-normative environment. The implications suggest that individuals who "come out" later have a more difficult time with accepting their sexual fluidity.

EXPLORING AGE, GENDER, AND RELATIONSHIP CLOSENESS DIFFERENCES IN RESPONSES TO IGNORED DISRESPECT
Jenessa C. Steele, 1 Amanda Chappell, 1 and Rachel Scott 1 , 1.

Radford University, Radford, Virginia, United States
Emotional responses to disrespect tend to be negative (Hawkins, 2015). Little is known about how responses to disrespect vary across age groups and relationship closeness. It is unknown whether older adults have more emotional protection against disrespectful experiences, or are more deeply affected due to relationship closeness. Overall, we might expect that older adults react less negatively to disrespect compared to young adults, as they are more-skilled emotion regulators (Carstensen, 1991;English & Carstensen, 2014). We aimed to explore if, and under which circumstances, older adults are more or less sensitive to disrespect compared to younger adults. Three hundred participants responded to six scenarios illustrating ignored disrespect. Participants were randomly assigned to close or distant relationship disrespect scenarios. Relationship closeness was first determined by requesting participants identify a person in each layer of Kahn and Antonucci's (1980) Social Convoy Model. Identified names were then automatically inserted into the six scenarios. Emotional responses and sensitivity to each scenario were recorded. Participants in the close condition reported more sensitivity to disrespect and negative emotions than participants in the distant condition. Females reported more sensitivity to disrespect and negative emotions than males. We did not find overwhelming support for age differences in responses to disrespect. A single scenario indicated younger participants more sensitive to disrespect than older participants. Findings suggest it is more hurtful to be disrespected by someone close to you and females may be more sensitive to disrespect than males. More research investigating the role of age in disrespect is needed.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL JUDGEMENTS RELATE TO SOCIAL EXPERIENCE ON THE JOB FOR OLDER ADULTS Cassandra Richards, 1 and Jennifer T. Stanley 1 , 1 The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, United States
Older adults (OA) are worse than young adults (YA) at recognizing emotional facial expressions (Ruffman, Henry, Livingstone, & Phillips, 2008). In particular, age differences in anger recognition remain even when other emotions improve via additional context (e.g., Richter, Dietzel, & Kunzmann, 2011;Stanley & Isaacowitz, 2015). We investigated whether job experiences with greater social components would relate to better anger recognition and interpersonal perception in OA. We expected OA who held jobs with more social requirements would be better at anger recognition and interpersonal perception, but that this would differ by gender. OA (N=194) reported their present job and completed an emotion perception task and the Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15;Costanzo & Archer, 1989). Ratings from the O*Net database were used to determine the degree of social requirements (0-100) for reported jobs. For older females, more social experience in their present job was related to better anger recognition (r =.45,p=.014). More face-to-face experience in the job held the longest was related to better overall emotion perception in older females (r=.20,p=.047). For older males, more social experience in their present job was related to worse anger recognition (r=-.45, p=.029). More coordination and leadership experience in the job held the longest was related to better interpersonal perception in older males (r =.28, p=.010). These results suggest gender is important when examining the degree to which social experience in the workplace relates to social judgments. Future work should investigate whether gender differences in subordinate vs leadership roles can account for these findings.

AGE MODERATES THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL REACTIVITY
Mai B. Mikkelsen, 1 Gitte Tramm, 1 and Mimi Mehlsen 1 ,

Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Background: According to the notion of maturational dualism, the link between mind and body weakens with