Age differences in emotion regulation strategy use, variability, and flexibility: An experience sampling approach.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Gerontology
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Life span theories propose aging enhances emotion regulation (ER) strategy deployment and situational matching.
• Understanding age-related differences in ER strategy use, variability, and flexibility is crucial for developmental science.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine age-related differences in ER strategy use (reappraisal, suppression) in daily social interactions.
• To investigate age-related differences in ER variability and flexibility across social and emotional contexts.
• To assess how ER strategy use covaries with relational and emotional factors across the adult lifespan.

Main Methods:

• Employed an event-contingent experience sampling design over 9 weeks.
• Collected data from 150 adults aged 18–89 years on 64,213 social interactions.
• Utilized multilevel models to analyze intraindividual variation and covariation in ER strategy use.

Main Results:

• No age differences were found in overall ER strategy use (reappraisal, suppression).
• Older adults exhibited lower ER variability across different social situations.
• Individuals flexibly matched ER strategies to emotional context, particularly with close others, though suppression covariation with relational context weakened in older age.

Conclusions:

• While ER variability decreases with age, older adults maintain flexibility in matching strategies to emotional contexts, especially in close relationships.
• The study underscores the value of experience sampling and intraindividual analyses for studying emotional development across the lifespan.
• Findings contribute to understanding the nuanced ways emotion regulation evolves throughout adulthood.