Emotion control beliefs reflect the extent to which people believe emotions “should” and “can” be controlled and have been linked to psychological well-being. Research has yet to examine age-related differences in these beliefs and their daily associations with affective experiences. The present study examines age differences in daily emotion control beliefs and their within-person associations with positive and negative affect. The study used 14-day daily diary data from an adult lifespan community sample (younger adults: 18-36 years old, N = 72; older adults: 66-92 years old, N = 66). The results revealed that older adults reported higher average can beliefs than younger adults, but no age differences were observed for average should beliefs. Further, multilevel models revealed that, in general, having stronger beliefs one cancontrol their emotions was associated with higher positive affect and lower negative affect across age, whereas stronger beliefs one should control their emotions was only associated with higher negative affect in younger adults. Examining daily variations, while both age groups also experienced significant increases in positive affect and decreases in negative affect on days which they believed they could control their emotion more than usual, the daily association with positive affect was stronger among young adults. Further, younger, but not older, adults experienced decreases in positive affect and increases in negative affect on days in which they believed they should control their emotions more than usual, while older adults' affect did not significantly change. These findings add to emotional aging theory and research by highlighting that emotion control beliefs are differentially associated with affective experience on a daily-level, and these associations change across the adult lifespan.
Jocelyn Rutledge (Wed,) studied this question.