Emotional Health and Positive Versus Negative Social Exchanges: A Daily Diary Analysis

Abstract

Older adults' daily lives entail a mix of positive and negative interpersonal encounters, and these encounters have the potential to affect their emotional well-being. This study examined the links between positive versus negative social exchanges and well-being, using daily diary data collected at 2 points in time from a sample of community-residing older adults (N = 129). Negative exchanges occurred less often but were related more consistently to daily mood than were positive exchanges. These day-to-day exchanges also predicted less transient dimensions of emotional health, with positive and negative exchanges exhibiting distinctive associations with loneliness and depression. Positive exchanges also appeared to influence emotional health by offsetting the adverse effects of negative exchanges. An increase in day-to-day negative exchanges over a 1-year period was associated with an increase in depression. Implications for alternative models of the effects of positive versus negative social exchanges are discussed.