Abstract
Research on close relationships in later life receives increased attention, but we know little about sexuality and intimacy in old age. We use cross-sectional interdisciplinary data from the Berlin Aging Study II (age: M = 68, SD = 3.68; 50% women; N = 1,514) to capture behavioral (actual activity), cognitive (wish for activity), and emotional (sense of security and acceptance) dimensions of sexuality, and their biopsychosocial correlates. As expected, the older participants were, the less sexual activity and sexual thoughts they reported, but no less emotional satisfaction. Huge individual differences existed though in that a large percentage of older adults reported more sexual activities and thoughts than the comparison group of 20- to 35-year olds. Analyses also revealed that psychosocial characteristics including relationship status, duration, and quality accounted for larger shares of variance than the physical health factors examined. We discuss implications of our findings for theories of successful aging.