When helping helps: benefits of daily advice provision on mood among older adults with life problems

Older adults may benefit from providing support to others, but experiencing life problems may undermine their ability to provide certain types of support. This inability to provide support may be detrimental to well-being, but older adults with life problems may particularly benefit when they are able to provide support.

Participants aged 65+ from the Daily Experiences and Well-being Study (Mage = 73.75, N = 287) completed a baseline interview indicating whether they experienced a number of life problems in the prior year and background characteristics. Then, they completed an ecological momentary assessment study reporting their positive and negative mood every 3 h for 5 to 6 consecutive days. They also indicated whether they provided emotional support, practical support, and advice to their social partners at the end of each day.

Regression analyses revealed no significant associations between the number of life problems and the provision of each type of support. Multilevel models showed that providing advice was significantly associated with higher daily positive mood on that day. Further, older adults with a high number of life problems (≥3 life problems) experienced less negative mood on days when they provided advice compared to days when they did not. However, this effect was not observed among those with fewer problems.

These findings suggest that older adults find ways to contribute to their social partners even when their resources may be tested, but the types of support they provide may still have differing implications for their daily well-being.