An Older-Age Advantage? Emotion Regulation and Emotional Experience After a Day of Work

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate age differences in emotional experience after a day of work, and the role of emotion-regulation strategy use in shaping emotional experience. Based on the lifespan literature, we predicted that older workers enjoy higher emotional well-being, in particular in terms of higher levels of low-arousal positive emotions and lower levels of high-arousal negative emotions, than young workers. We further predicted that age differences in emotional experience are mediated by a more adaptive profile of habitual emotion-regulation strategy use in older compared to young workers. Multilevel mediation analysis of 832 daily surveys completed by 92 healthcare professionals failed to provide evidence of age differences in after-work emotions. Yet, age was indirectly associated with emotional experience via enhanced use of adaptive strategies (e.g., positive reappraisal, savoring) and lower use of maladaptive strategies (e.g., rumination, fault finding). Overall, findings support an older-age advantage in emotion regulation, which in turn, benefits emotional well-being in the evening, a time of day that is essential for recovery from work demands.