Department of Psychology, University of Castilla-La Mancha, School of Education, Albacete, Spain.
Department of Psychology, University of Castilla-La Mancha, School of Medicine, Albacete, Spain.
PLoS One. 2020 Jul 16;15(7):e0235378. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235378. eCollection 2020.
Reminiscing, or thinking and talking about our past experiences, can have mood enhancing effects. Rumination is implicated in reminiscence and yet has been shown to have negative effects on mood, with important differences between age groups. However, age differences in the effects of reminiscing on mood, and particularly the effects of rumination within reminiscence, are less explored. Two different age groups completed self-report measures of the positive directive (planning for present and future behaviors) and social (communication) uses of autobiographical memory, as well as maladaptive rumination and depression symptom severity. Young participants (Mean age: 21.82) ruminated more and reported greater frequency of using the directive and social functions of thinking and talking about past experiences than older adults (Mean age: 71.82). These reminiscence processes were also differentially associated with depression symptoms between age groups when tested in structural equation models. In older participants, but not young participants, the directive function was negatively associated with depression severity; in young participants, but not old participants, the social function was negatively associated with depression severity. Furthermore, although depressive and abstract rumination was directly positively related to depression scores in both samples, this association was inverted when the effect of rumination on depression was calculated through functions of reminiscence. The implications of these results for intervention development in older versus young adults, is discussed.
怀旧，即思考和谈论我们的过往经历，可以产生改善情绪的效果。反刍与怀旧有关，但已被证明对情绪有负面影响，且在不同年龄组之间存在重要差异。然而，怀旧对情绪的影响以及怀旧过程中反刍的影响在年龄方面的差异研究较少。两个不同的年龄组完成了自我报告的积极导向（规划当前和未来行为）和自传体记忆的社交（交流）用途、适应不良反刍和抑郁症状严重程度的测量。年轻参与者（平均年龄：21.82 岁）比老年参与者（平均年龄：71.82 岁）更多地反刍，并且报告更多地使用指导和社交功能来思考和谈论过去的经历的频率。在结构方程模型中测试时，这些怀旧过程与抑郁症状在不同年龄组之间也存在差异。在老年参与者中，而不是在年轻参与者中，指导功能与抑郁严重程度呈负相关；在年轻参与者中，而不是在老年参与者中，社交功能与抑郁严重程度呈负相关。此外，尽管在两个样本中，抑郁和抽象反刍与抑郁评分直接呈正相关，但当通过怀旧的功能来计算反刍对抑郁的影响时，这种关联就会反转。讨论了这些结果对老年和年轻成年人干预措施发展的意义。
