Acceptability of Sexual Relationships Between Elderly People Residing in Nursing Homes

The overall level of acceptability expressed by French people aged 18–84 years regarding sexual relationships among elderly persons was examined as well as the effect on acceptability of four factors: partners’ age, marital status, duration of the relationship, and privacy. Four hundred and twenty seven participants were presented with 36 vignettes of a few lines that were composed according to a four within-subject factor design. A cluster analysis revealed three basic philosophies regarding acceptability of sexual relationships. For most participants, sexual relationships were always considered as acceptable. In other words, their acceptability was not conditioned by the concrete circumstances (in the nursing home) or the social circumstances (partners’ marital status) in which they take place. For a minority of participants (18%), acceptability was strictly conditioned on the concrete condition of privacy in which they take place, and for another minority of participants (25%), it was conditioned on two factors: privacy, as in the preceding cluster, and marital status. Probably for most people in France, sexual relationships are considered a human right, and nursing institutions are expected to adapt to the sexual needs of elderly people, and not the reverse.