Daily activity diversity and its dual role in negative affect among Korean women: midlife as a turning point

According to experiential diversity theory, engaging in diverse activities is associated with healthy aging and well-being. However, it remains unclear whether this association holds consistently through life span. For women, midlife is a period characterized by substantial biological and psychological changes and considerable heterogeneity in social life. This study examined how daily activity diversity relates to 2 distinct forms of negative affect, helplessness and annoyance, and explored whether these associations vary as a function of age among middle-aged Korean women.

Using the Experience Sampling Method, this study collected data on activities and emotional states 6 times a day for 1 week from 95 Korean women aged 45 to 56 (633 daily observations). Daily activity diversity was calculated using normalized Shannon's entropy and analyzed in Multilevel models.

The results showed that daily activity diversity was associated with lower helplessness but not with annoyance. Age moderated these associations: from age 50 onward, higher activity diversity was associated with lower helplessness, whereas among women younger than age 50, higher activity diversity was associated with greater annoyance.

Daily activity diversity may function differently across midlife, providing emotional benefits in later midlife but imposing greater demands in earlier midlife. This study identifies midlife as a critical period for understanding the developmental trajectories of the emotional benefits and costs of activity diversity, emphasizing the need to account for heterogeneity within midlife.