Anxieties about aging and death and psychological distress: The protective role of emotional complexity

Death and aging anxieties are related to higher psychological distress, but no study has examined whether these relationships are moderated by emotional complexity, an important indicator of adaptive emotional regulation among older adults. Participants (N = 188; mean age = 57; range = 29–100) rated their death and aging anxieties, general psychological distress, and reported their emotions on a daily basis over 14 days. Results showed that emotional complexity moderated the relationship between each of the two anxieties and psychological distress (i.e., the positive relationship between the two anxieties and psychological distress existed only among subjects with low emotional complexity). The findings suggest that emotional complexity buffers against psychological distress, and can be further explored as a facilitating mechanism in protecting against the negative mental health effects of aging and death anxieties. 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Emotional complexity is a multifaceted construct, considered as a personal asset and as an important indicator of adaptive emotional regulation among older adults (Bodner, Palgi, & Kaveh, 2012; Grühn, Lumley, Diehl, & Labouvie-Vief, 2013). Yet, there is no agreement upon the theoretical or operational definition of emotional complexity. Two common psychometrically valid approaches to emotional complexity are either concerned with the extent to which individuals simultaneously experience different emotions (report of occurrence of positive and negative affect at the same time; Ong & Bergeman, 2004), or to how clearly they differentiate between them (express a varied and nuanced set of emotions; Grühn et al., 2013). The current study aims to examine if emotional complexity protects against the effects of existential anxieties on psychological distress throughout life, so that higher levels of emotional complexity can buffer the effect of aging and death anxieties on symptoms of psychological distress. 1. Aging anxiety and psychological distress Aging anxiety is defined as concern and anticipation of adverse physical, mental, and personal losses during the aging process (Lasher & Faulkender, 1993). It can relate to symptoms of depression, anxiety and related somatic manifestations, together defined as psychological distress (Derogatis, 2001). Although worries from adverse physical consequences of aging can be associated with somatic concerns, fear of future mental deterioration can be associated with manifestations of anxiety, and worries about future personal losses may lead to depression, only few studies have examined these relationships. These studies suggest that higher aging anxiety is associated with more psychological distress. One study demonstrated a positive correlation between aging anxiety and depression (Kim & Lee, 2007). Another discovered that health anxieties, and in particular anxiety about loss of attractiveness, were strongly associated with greater psychological distress (Barrett & Robbins, 2008). Finally, higher levels of personal distress predicted higher levels of aging anxiety (Allan, Johnson, & Emerson, 2014). 2. Death anxiety and psychological distress Death anxiety deals with the fear of the end of life and with the fear of the unknown afterlife (Carmel & Mutran, 1997; Lasher & Faulkender, 1993; Yan, Silverstein, & Wilber, 2011). It describes an emotional state of death awareness, in which people experience terror as a response to the knowledge of their mortality, which is not triggered by an immediate life threat (Russac, Gatliff, Reece, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.03.052 0191-8869/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Interdisciplinary Department of Social Sciences and the Department of Music, Faculty of Social Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel. Tel.: +972 3 5318405. E-mail address: [email protected] (E. Bodner). Personality and Individual Differences 83 (2015) 91–96