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Published on: July 27, 2018
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Conscientiousness, Activity Engagement, and Momentary Affect in Oldest-Old Adulthood
Tim D Windsor1, Rachel G Curtis2, Denis Gerstorf3
1College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
Summary
Meaningful activities boost positive emotions in older adults, especially when challenging. However, challenging meaningful activities can also increase negative emotions, while less challenging ones decrease them.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Psychology
- Affective Science
Background:
- Maintaining engagement with life is crucial for successful aging.
- Personal meaning derived from activities is thought to be vital for late-life emotional well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between daily activity meaning, challenge, and affect in very old adults.
- To explore if conscientiousness moderates the link between activity meaning and affect.
Main Methods:
- 73 adults (average age 89) from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging participated.
- Participants reported on activity meaning, challenge, and affect five times daily for seven days.
Main Results:
- Positive affect increased with meaningful activities more when they were challenging.
- Meaningful activities were linked to higher negative affect when challenging, and lower negative affect when less challenging.
- Conscientiousness did not influence the association between activity meaning and affect.
Conclusions:
- Daily emotional experiences in very old age are intricately linked to meaningful activity engagement.
- Findings highlight the complex interplay between activity characteristics and affect, with implications for self- and emotion regulation in later life.
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