Emotional experience related to daily uplifts and stressors: age-differential effects in the context of age-related gains and losses

OBJECTIVES: Emotional aging research has been dominated by the idea of age-related improvements in emotional experience. However, current mixed empirical findings call for a more differentiated, context-dependent approach. It has been proposed that age-related improvements in emotional experience are present in benign contexts and when age-related gains (e.g., in life experience and knowledge) are salient. In adverse contexts and when age-related losses (e.g., in physical and cognitive functioning) are salient, emotional experience in late adulthood could be more negative. METHODS: Combining data from two 14-day daily diary samples (total N = 268, 50-92 years), we tested the association between daily events and positive and negative affect and whether those were moderated by awareness of age-related gains and losses, indicating age-related strengths and vulnerabilities. We also tested whether these associations varied by chronological age. RESULTS: The association between stressors and negative affect was moderated by age-related losses and age. Participants reported more negative affect on days with above-average stressor occurrence and more age-related losses. This relation was moderated by age and was most pronounced in our oldest participants (72 years and older). The association between uplift occurrence and positive affect was moderated by daily age-related gains, with more positive affect being experienced on days with more uplifts and below-average age-related gains. DISCUSSION: Our findings support the idea of a differentiated, context-dependent approach to emotional aging and highlight the importance of considering awareness of age-related losses as a vulnerability factor for emotional experience in late adulthood.