Age and gender differences in negative affect—Is there a role for emotion regulation?

Elderly people report less negative affect than the young, and women report more negative affect than men. This study investigated whether age and gender differences in negative affect could be explained by emotion regulation, measured as defensiveness and rumination, while controlling for the influence of life events. One-hundred-and-ninety-five young (20–35 years) and 302 elderly (70–85 years) men and women completed the Emotional Control Questionnaire-Rehearsal, Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Profile of Mood States, Beck’s Depression Inventory and List of Recent Experiences. Hierarchical regressions with negative affects as dependent variables showed that age was reduced to non-significance when controlling for defensiveness, and gender was reduced to non-significance when controlling for the interaction between age and gender, which in turn was reduced when entering rumination. Life events also influenced the association between age and negative affect. The results indicate that age differences in negative affect are mediated by defensiveness and life events and that when these two influences are accounted for elderly people score higher on sadness. Gender differences in negative affect were due to the young women’s higher scores on negative affect and this is partly explained by rumination.