Personality, emotion regulation, and age-based discrimination: implications for wellbeing in older adulthood

We sought to examine whether the negative associations between the two facets of ageism (internalized ageism and ageist discrimination) and psychological wellbeing are moderated by individual differences in personality, emotion regulation strategy use, and difficulties with strategy use in two cross-sectional studies.

Findings suggested that age-based discrimination and internalized ageism are associated with lower wellbeing. Extraversion, neuroticism, response modulation strategies, and difficulties with emotion regulation did not moderate ageism-wellbeing associations. However, use of engaged and disengaged cognitive change strategies did moderate the association between environmental mastery and internalized ageism, such that the effect of internalized ageism on environmental mastery was lessened.

These findings are discussed with respect to the potential for applicable and implementable interventions for older adults.