Social participation of the older sexual minority population: CLSA data

Despite the growing ageing population in Canada, limited efforts have been made to understand the role of ageing in sexual minority research. The term sexual minority refers to people that do not identify as heterosexual regarding their sexual orientation. In order to examine the role of social factors in sexual minority ageing, the study utilised the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) baseline data to compare social participation rates between different sexual orientation groups by using the analysis of variance. Findings from the study indicate that social participation levels differ by sexual orientation in both ageing males and females. The results of this study suggest that social participation is an important construct for studies that explore the ageing process of sexual minority populations. In particular, this study's results related to the lack of social participation in venues such as sports and religious activities points to potential areas of exploration for developing strategies to foster more inclusive environments in order to increase social engagements.