The Role of Ageist Sexual Stereotypes in the Network of Sexual Difficulties, Sex and Relationship Satisfaction Among Adults Aged 50+

Figures & data

Table 1. Expected valences of relationships in the network.

Variables	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)
(1) Relationship satisfaction
(2) Satisfaction with the freq. of sex	+
(3) Freq. of sex. intercourse	?	+
(4) Sexual difficulties	−	−	?
(5) Subjective health	+	+	+	−
(6) Importance of sex	?	?	+	?	?
(7) Ageist sexual stereotypes	?	?	−	+	?	−

Plus sign (+) = positive relationship; minus sign (−) = negative relationship; question mark (?) = relationship not hypothesized due to lack of evidence.

Table 2. Demographic description of the sample by gender.

Gender	Women (n = 466)	Men (n = 431)
	%	%
Nationality
Czech	73.3	81.9
Slovak	25.3	15.5
Other	1.4	2.6
Education level
Without high school certificate	15.2	26.2
High school graduate	55.6	37.2
University graduate	28.1	33.5
Postgraduate	1.2	3
Occupational status
Full-time employed	35.8	32.4
Self-employed	10.5	14.6
Retired	40.5	45.5
Other^a	13.2	7.5
Marital status
Married and living together	65	69.7
Married and living separately	2.6	4.7
Divorced	20.9	17.4
Widowed	9.7	4.7
Other^b	1.8	3.5
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual	97.8	97.1
Lesbian/gay	1.2	1.3
Bisexual	0.7	1.1
Other	0.2	0.4

^aOther categories of occupational status were “Part-time employed,” “Unemployed,” “Student,” “Unable to work due to disability,” and “Stay-at-home.”

^bOther categories of marital status were “involved and not married” and “same-sex registered partnership.”

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of the study variables.

	M	SD	Md	Min	Max
Relationship satisfaction
Women	5.23	1.31	5.25	1	7
Men	5.21	1.42	5.5	1	7
All	5.22	1.37	5.5	1	7
Satisfaction with the frequency of sex
Women	4.15	1.05	5	1	5
Men	4.58	0.78	5	1	5
Frequency of sexual intercourse
Women	3.65	1.69	4	1	6
Men	4.14	1.59	4	1	6
All	3.9	1.65	4	1	6
Ageist sexual stereotypes
Women	1.57	0.51	1.4	1	3.2
Men	1.42	0.43	1.2	1	3
All	1.49	0.48	1.4	1	3.2
Sexual difficulties^a
Women	2.13	0.75	2	1	5
Men	2.28	0.93	2	1	5
Subjective health
Women	3.69	0.79	4	1	5
Men	3.65	0.79	4	1	5
All	3.67	0.79	4	1	5
Importance of sex
Women	2.94	1	3	1	5
Men	3.53	0.93	4	1	5
All	3.24	1.01	3	1	5

^aWomen were asked about pain or discomfort during sex while men were asked about the quality of erection.

Figure 1. Network models. Note. Models W1 (Model 1 for women) and M1 (Model 1 for men) include all sex-related variables, except for the ageist sexual stereotypes. Models W2 (Model 2 for women) and M2 (Model 2 for men) were estimated with the ageist sexual stereotypes variable. (1) relationship satisfaction; (2) satisfaction with the frequency of sex; (3) frequency of sexual intercourse; (4) sexual difficulties; (5) subjective health; (6) importance of sex; and (7) the ageist stereotypes.

Figure 2. Centrality indices.

Figure 3. Centrality indices.

Table 4. Expected valences of relationships in the network (lower triangle) and obtained relationships in the networks (upper triangle).

Variables	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
(1) Relationship satisfaction		+	+(W), 0(M)	0	+(W), 0(M)	0	0
(2) Satisfaction with the frequency of sex	+		+	−/0	0/+	0	0
(3) Frequency of sexual intercourse	?	+		0(W), −(M)	0(W), +(M)	+	0
(4) Sexual difficulties	−	−	?		0(W), −(M)	−/0	+
(5) Subjective health	+	+	+	−		0	0
(6) Importance of sex	?	?	+	?	?		−
(7) Ageist sexual stereotypes	?	?	−	+	?	−

Plus sign (+) = positive relationship; minus sign (−) = negative relationship; question mark (?) = relationship non-hypothesized due to lack of existing evidence; 0 = no meaningful association found; M = found in men’s networks only; W = found in women’s networks only. One sign in a cell means one finding consistent among models.