A trouble shared is a trouble halved: Age differences in emotional experience and expression during couples' conversations.

Abstract

Although emotional experience and expression are strongly tied to social contexts, most age-comparative studies have used an individualistic approach. The few dyadic laboratory studies that exist have focused on discussions about conflicts and have suggested that older couples experience and express less negative emotion than younger couples. However, recent studies have emphasized the context dependency of age differences in emotional reactivity. More concretely, in situations such as conversations in which the experience and expression of negative emotion might be beneficial for the relationship because it can initiate support and indicate togetherness, older adults should experience and express similar or even higher levels of negative emotion than younger couples. To test this hypothesis, 37 younger (Mage = 24.33) and 41 older couples (Mage = 70.27) were instructed to talk about an ongoing problem experienced by one member of the couple. The main dependent variables were the intensity of negative emotion as manifested in subjective feelings as well as facial and verbal expressions during the conversation. Additionally, we examined age differences in couples' emphasis on togetherness. In contrast to past work but consistent with our prediction, there were not many age differences in both partners' emotional experience and expression. Moreover, in line with previous studies, older couples perceived and expressed more togetherness during the conversation than younger couples. These findings suggest that age differences in negative emotion may be context dependent and less evident if negative emotion does not harm the relationship and serves potentially adaptive functions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).