Center for Healthy Aging, Pennsylvania State University.
School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Psychol Aging. 2013 Dec;28(4):1076-87. doi: 10.1037/a0034000.
Research on age differences in emotional responses to daily stress has produced inconsistent findings. Guided by recent theoretical advances in aging theory (S. T. Charles, 2010, Strength and vulnerability integration: A model of emotional well-being across adulthood, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 136, pp. 1068-1091) that emphasize the importance of context for predicting when and how age is related to affective well-being, the current study examined age differences in emotional responses to everyday stressors. The present study examined how three contextual features (e.g., timing of exposure, stressor severity, global perceived stress [GPS]) moderate age differences in emotional experience in an ecological momentary assessment study of adults (N = 190) aged 18-81 years. Results indicated that older adults' negative affect (NA) was less affected by exposure to recent stressors than younger adults, but that there were no age differences in the effects of stressor exposure 3-6 hr afterward. Higher levels of GPS predicted amplified NA responses to daily stress, and controlling for GPS eliminated age differences in NA responses to stressors. No age differences in NA responses as a function of stressor severity were observed. In contrast, older age was associated with less of a decrease in PA when exposed to recent stressors or with more severe recent stressors. There were no age differences in the effect of previous stressor exposure or severity on PA, or any interactions between momentary or previous stress and GPS on PA. Together, these results support the notion that chronic stress plays a central role in emotional experience in daily life. We discuss the implications of these results for emotion theories of aging.
关于情绪对日常压力反应的年龄差异的研究得出了不一致的结果。本研究以衰老理论的最新理论进展为指导（S.T.Charles，2010，优势与脆弱性整合：成年期情感幸福感模型，《心理学公报》，第 136 卷，第 1068-1091 页），强调预测年龄与情感幸福感相关的情境的重要性，目前研究考察了情绪对日常压力源的反应的年龄差异。本研究考察了三种情境特征（例如，暴露时间、压力源严重程度、全球感知压力[GPS]）如何在对 18-81 岁成年人进行的生态瞬间评估研究中调节情绪体验的年龄差异（N=190）。结果表明，与年轻人相比，老年人的负面情绪（NA）受近期压力源暴露的影响较小，但在暴露后 3-6 小时，压力源暴露对年龄没有影响。较高的 GPS 水平预测了对日常压力的 NA 反应加剧，控制 GPS 后，消除了对压力源的 NA 反应的年龄差异。没有观察到压力源严重程度与 NA 反应的年龄差异。相比之下，当暴露于近期压力源时，老年人的 PA 减少幅度较小，或近期压力源更严重。之前的压力源暴露或严重程度对 PA 没有影响，或对 PA 没有任何影响，压力源和 GPS 之间的交互作用。这些结果共同支持了慢性压力在日常生活中情绪体验中起着核心作用的观点。我们讨论了这些结果对衰老情绪理论的影响。
