Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
J Aging Health. 2014 Sep;26(6):993-1014. doi: 10.1177/0898264314535633. Epub 2014 Jun 11.
Emotional competence (EC) has been found to be an important predictor of individuals' health. While it is well known that EC predicts important outcomes in young adults, its importance is less clear in the elderly. We aimed to address this gap: Is the structure of EC the same in older as in younger adults? How do EC evolve between 50 and 80 years old? Does the predictive power of EC, regarding physical and emotional adjustment, increase or decrease with age?
A total of 6,688 participants filled subjective health and EC questionnaires. We gathered their medication consumption over the last 11 years, from the database of health insurance.
While the structure of ECs remains stable in older adults, it generally declines as people get older, except for emotion regulation, which improves with age. Results also show that EC predicts both physical and emotional health.
These results suggest that the development of specific interventions to improve EC may be useful for the elderly.
情绪能力（EC）已被发现是个体健康的重要预测因素。虽然众所周知，EC 可以预测年轻人的重要结果，但在老年人中，其重要性尚不清楚。我们旨在解决这一差距：EC 的结构在老年人和年轻人中是否相同？EC 在 50 岁至 80 岁之间如何演变？EC 对身体和情绪调整的预测能力是否随着年龄的增长而增加或减少？
共有 6688 名参与者填写了主观健康和 EC 问卷。我们从健康保险数据库中收集了他们过去 11 年的用药情况。
虽然 EC 的结构在老年人中保持稳定，但随着年龄的增长，EC 通常会下降，除了情绪调节随着年龄的增长而改善。结果还表明，EC 可以预测身体和情绪健康。
这些结果表明，开发特定的干预措施来提高 EC 可能对老年人有用。
