Age differences in emotion regulation strategy use and flexibility in daily life

Age-related shifts in emotion regulation patterns are important for explaining preserved emotional well-being in late adulthood amidst declines in physical and cognitive health. Although several studies have examined age-related shifts in emotion regulation strategy use, age differences in how specific strategies are flexibly adapted to shifting contexts in daily life and the adaptiveness of such shifts remains poorly understood.

130 younger adults (ages 22-35) and 130 older adults (ages 65-85) completed a modified Day Reconstruction Method Assessment and self-report questionnaires to examine age differences in emotion regulation strategy use and one aspect of emotion regulation flexibility (responsiveness) in daily life, and the adaptive implications of these differences.

Older adults exhibited more frequent acceptance use, less frequent distraction use, and less flexibility in the responsiveness of strategies with varying negative affect. Across age groups, the use of expressive suppression and distraction was associated with less adaptive outcomes, whereas higher acceptance responsiveness, positive reappraisal responsiveness, and situation selection responsiveness were associated with more adaptive outcomes. Age-group moderated the associations between adaptiveness metrics with the use and flexibility of several emotion regulation strategies.

The current findings provide early evidence of age-related decreases in emotion regulation flexibility as well as age-related shifts in the adaptiveness of emotion regulation patterns.