Age, Rumination, and Emotional Recovery From a Psychosocial Stressor

Daily worry, rumination, and sleep in late life

OBJECTIVE

Perseverative thinking (e.g., worry/rumination) is a common response to stress, and can be detrimental to well-being. Sleep may represent an important mechanism by which perseverative thinking is disrupted or amplified from day to day. This study examined the associations between older adults' everyday worry, rumination, and sleep.

METHODS

Older adults (N = 270) aged 65-89 completed a baseline interview and morning and evening assessments each day for 5-6 days. Every morning, they indicated their worry toward the day and their sleep duration and disturbances the prior night. Every evening, they rated worry and rumination experienced that day.

RESULTS

Multilevel models showed that perseverative thinking predicted worse sleep (i.e., fewer hours of sleep) at the between-person level (B = -0.29, p = .004) but better sleep (i.e., fewer sleep disturbances) at the within-person level (Bs < -0.18, ps < .003). At the within-person level, more hours of sleep (B = -0.06, p = .04) and fewer sleep disturbances (B = 0.10, p < .001) predicted less worry the next morning. Prior night's worry predicted greater next morning's worry, but this association was significant only when older adults reported fewer-than-usual hours of sleep (B = 0.24, p < .001), not when they reported more-than-usual hours of sleep (B = 0.04, p = .61).

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that worry and rumination are intimately linked with sleep and highlight the protective role that better sleep may play in reducing older adults' everyday perseverative thinking.

Looking back, forging ahead: Fifteen years of Strength and Vulnerability Integration (SAVI)

Strength and Vulnerability Integration (SAVI) describes age-related patterns of emotional well-being. Since its initial publication, studies have tested the model, supporting its original tenets and also identifying areas needing refinement. The current review provides an updated description of SAVI, describing how age differences in well-being vary based on the proximity to acute stressors and the proposed underlying mechanisms. SAVI also addresses questions regarding why we sometimes observe increases in distress among older adults over time. In this description, we clarify predictions of SAVI, as well as suggest places where more research is needed.

The age-Related Positivity Effect and Emotion Regulation: Assessing Downstream Affective Outcomes

While substantial literature suggests that positive preferences are in the service of emotion regulation pursuits, little evidence has directly linked positivity "processes" with well-being "outcomes." The current study examined age-related differences in negative gaze preferences and how such preferences are related to subsequent regulatory outcomes. Participants were 79 older adults and 72 younger adults. They first provided a baseline mood assessment, which was followed by a standardized emotional video clip for three minutes during which visual fixation preferences were recorded via an eye tracker. Mood was again assessed after the film, which was followed by a standardized video recovery task, and completion of a recovery mood measure. Older adults fixated less on negative portions of the emotional video clip relative to younger adults, indicative of an age-related positivity effect. The indirect effect of age on mood recovery through fixation was not supported.

Rumination and Sleep Quality Among Older Adults: Examining the Role of Social Support

OBJECTIVES

Although the adverse link between rumination and sleep quality is well established, much of the literature neglects the role of social factors. This study examined the role of older adults' perceived social support from spouses and from family/friends in modifying the association between trait rumination and sleep quality. Existing hypotheses suggest that social support may play 3 unique roles, each tested within the current study: (H1) support may act as a protective factor that buffers negative effects of rumination on sleep quality, (H2) support may curtail rumination and, in turn, promote sleep quality, and (H3) rumination may erode support and, in turn, undermine sleep quality.

METHOD

Data came from 86 partnered older adults in independent-living or retirement communities (Mage = 75.70 years). We utilized 3 waves of interview data collected annually between 2017 and 2019. The first hypothesis was tested using moderation in multilevel models; the second 2 hypotheses were evaluated with prospective associations using multilevel mediation.

RESULTS

Negative effects of high-trait rumination on time-varying sleep quality were attenuated among those who reported high, stable levels of support from their spouses. Perceived family/friend support did not yield the same protective effect. There was no evidence that support preempted, or was eroded by, rumination.

DISCUSSION

Perceived spousal support may act as a psychosocial resource that mitigates negative effects of trait rumination on older adults' sleep quality. Interventions aimed at mitigating maladaptive outcomes of rumination on sleep quality for older adults should consider spousal support as a key target.

What Can We Learn From More Than 140,000 Moments of Ecological Momentary Assessment-Assessed Negative Emotion and Ambulatory Blood Pressure? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE

Two decades of research has examined within-person associations between negative emotion states and ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) using ecological momentary assessment (EMA), but no meta-analysis has been conducted. We conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify the magnitude of this association and identify moderators, review strengths and weaknesses in conceptual and measurement approaches, and provide recommendations.

METHODS

We searched databases (PsycINFO, PubMed), identified 15 studies, and obtained data from 13 studies (n = 2511; 142,307 observations).

RESULTS

Random-effects meta-analyses demonstrated small effect r values between momentary negative emotions and systolic ABP (r = 0.06) and diastolic ABP (r = 0.05; p values < .001). Meta-regressions found that effects were larger among studies focused on anxiety, multidimensional negative emotions, predominantly female samples, or less observations of each participant (p values from .003 to .049). A qualitative review found that few studies examined moderators contributing to the substantial interindividual differences in this association.

CONCLUSIONS

The small association between momentary negative emotion and ABP extends laboratory findings on the association between the experiential and physiological aspects of emotion to the daily, natural emotional experiences of individuals. This literature could be strengthened by determining interindividual and intraindividual moderators of this association (e.g., trait negative emotion and state positive emotion), examining differential associations of different negative emotions with ABP, and standardizing EMA protocols. Although the effect is small, to the extent that repeated emotion-related cardiovascular reactivity may contribute to cardiovascular disease risk, identifying daily life triggers of emotion is important.

The autonomic correlates of dysphoric rumination and post-rumination savoring

Trait dysphoric rumination is a transdiagnostic factor associated with depression and anxiety that has also been linked with blunted respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of reduced emotion regulation capacity. However, the autonomic correlates of state dysphoric rumination remain unclear. We examined the physiological correlates of state dysphoric rumination and the potential repairing effects of savoring on autonomic functioning. To provide a comprehensive assessment of autonomic correlates, we examined changes in parasympathetic (RSA) and sympathetic (cardiac pre-ejection period, PEP; and electrodermal activity, EDA) arousal independently, as well as autonomic coordination among indices. Eighty-two women (ages 18-25) completed laboratory physiological assessments, including rumination and savoring tasks, and self-report measures of trait rumination. Dysphoric rumination was associated with sympathetic activation (i.e., decreases in PEP, increases in EDA), and subsequent savoring following a recovery period also corresponded with decreases in PEP. Trait rumination did not predict autonomic changes during state rumination. However, higher trait rumination was associated with greater sympathetic coordination (PEP-EDA correspondence) during savoring. In summary, dysphoric rumination co-occurred with sympathetic activation, and subsequent savoring successfully recruited sympathetic activity (PEP) redirected on positive moods and events. Results also emphasize the utility of examining sympathetic and parasympathetic indices, and coordination among autonomic indices to delineate autonomic activity associated with emotion regulation strategies.

Age, Daily Stress Processes, and Allostatic Load: A Longitudinal Study

Objective: The present study examined age differences in the association between daily stressors and allostatic load. Method: Participants consisted of 317 adults (34-84 years) who participated in Waves 1 (1996-1997) and 2 (between 2005 and 2009) of the Midlife Development in the United States Survey. During Wave 1, participants reported the stressors they encountered across eight consecutive days. Within-person affective reactivity slopes indexing change in negative affect from a nonstressor day to a stressor day were calculated for each participant. Affective reactivity and stressor exposure scores at Wave 1 were used to predict allostatic load at Wave 2. Results: Heightened levels of affective reactivity at Wave 1 predicted elevated levels of allostatic load at Wave 2 but only among older adults who also reported high levels of stressor exposure. No significant associations emerged for younger adults. Discussion: Daily stress processes may be one pathway through which age-related physical health declines occur.

Thoughts after marital conflict and punch biopsy wounds: Age-graded pathways to healing

Thoughts and emotions following marital conflict have received little attention but almost certainly contribute to marriage's long-term health effects. Consistent with emotion theories of aging, we expected the effects of post-conflict thoughts on important neuroendocrine and immune outcomes, cortisol levels and full-thickness wound healing, to differ by age. An age-diverse sample of married couples received a punch biopsy wound and discussed a marital problem, then privately recorded their thoughts and rated their mood. Salivary cortisol was sampled throughout the day, and wound healing was measured for 32days. Older adults reported more positive mood post-conflict than younger adults. Thoughts with more positive emotional content related to lower subsequent cortisol levels. Only older adults who expressed more positive thoughts after conflict experienced faster wound healing, not younger adults. These findings point to the increased physiological importance of regulatory post-stressor processes in older age, and broaden our understanding of social-emotional age differences in close relationships. These data also stimulate questions of whether marriage has more widespread health consequences for older partners, undetected in studies of short-term outcomes.

Rumination in migraine: Mediating effects of brooding and reflection between migraine and psychological distress

OBJECTIVE

The relationship between migraine and psychological distress has been consistently reported in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. We hypothesised that a stable tendency to perseverative thoughts such as rumination would mediate the relationship between migraine and psychological distress. Design and Main Outcomes Measures: Self-report questionnaires measuring depressive rumination, current psychological distress and migraine symptoms in two independent European population cohorts, recruited from Budapest (N = 1139) and Manchester (N = 2004), were used. Structural regression analysis within structural equation modelling was applied to test the mediational role of brooding and reflection, the components of rumination, between migraine and psychological distress. Sex, age and lifetime depression were controlled for in the analysis.

RESULTS

Migraine predicted higher brooding and reflection scores, and brooding proved to be a mediator between migraine and psychological distress in both samples, while reflection mediated the relationship significantly only in the Budapest sample.

CONCLUSIONS

Elevated psychological distress in migraine is partially attributed to ruminative response style. Further studies are needed to expand our findings to clinical samples and to examine how rumination links to the adjustment to migraine.