Radjenovic Sonja, Rupprecht Fiona S, Nikitin Jana
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010, Vienna, Austria.
Eur J Ageing. 2025 Jan 20;22(1):2. doi: 10.1007/s10433-025-00838-0.
This study examines whether there are age-related differences in the experience of life events across adulthood. We hypothesized that older adults would report life events that are less anticipated, less normative, less controllable, less positive, and more strenuous than younger adults due to increasing developmental losses and decreasing gains. We investigated how age (linear, quadratic, and cubic) relates to life-event characteristics by comparing different events and analyzing the same events across individuals, to distinguish between the effects observed across life events and those that emerge after accounting for the specific life event in question. Additionally, we hypothesized that older adults would cope better with less favorable events due to their life experience and emotion regulation skills. Analyses of 6,688 participants (18-90 years) showed that while older adults reported less favorable life events, they coped better with the same events than younger adults. The results underscore the importance of distinguishing between age and life event effects. They also show that life-event characteristics are consistently linked to well-being throughout adulthood.
本研究考察了成年期不同年龄段在经历生活事件方面是否存在差异。我们假设，由于发展性损失增加和收获减少，与年轻成年人相比，年长成年人所报告的生活事件的可预期性更低、规范性更低、可控性更低、积极性更低且压力更大。我们通过比较不同事件并分析个体间的相同事件，来研究年龄（线性、二次方和三次方）与生活事件特征之间的关系，以区分在各类生活事件中观察到的影响与在考虑特定生活事件后出现的影响。此外，我们假设年长成年人由于其生活经历和情绪调节技能，能够更好地应对不太有利的事件。对6688名参与者（年龄在18至90岁之间）的分析表明，虽然年长成年人报告的生活事件不太有利，但他们在应对相同事件时比年轻成年人表现得更好。研究结果强调了区分年龄和生活事件影响的重要性。结果还表明，生活事件特征在整个成年期都与幸福感始终相关。
