Rapid emotion regulation after mood induction: Age and individual differences

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that emotion regulation improves with age. This study examined both age and individual differences in online emotion regulation after a negative mood induction. We found evidence that older adults were more likely to rapidly regulate their emotions than were younger adults. Moreover, older adults who rapidly regulated had lower trait anxiety and depressive symptoms and higher levels of optimism than their same-age peers who did not rapidly regulate. Measuring mood change over an extended time revealed that older rapid regulators still reported increased levels of positive affect over 20 min later, whereas young adult rapid regulators' moods had declined. These results highlight the importance of considering individual differences when examining age differences in online emotion regulation.