The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences
-
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci · Nov 2004
Age differences in emotion-regulation strategies in handling everyday problems.
We examined age differences in problem-focused and emotion-regulatory problem-solving strategy use for self-generated family problems. Young, middle-aged, and older participants generated family problem situations that were high and low in emotional salience. ⋯ When regulating emotions, middle-aged adults used more proactive emotion-regulation strategies than older adults, and older adults used more passive emotion-regulation strategies than middle-aged adults. These effects were driven by the high emotional salience condition.