Distress and Recurrence of Intrusive Thoughts in Younger and Older Adults

• Published in: Psychology and aging Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 199 - 210
• Main Authors: Magee, Joshua C., Teachman, Bethany A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-03-2012
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult. Elderly; Affect; Age Differences; Aged; Aging; Aging - psychology; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition & reasoning; Developmental psychology; Distress; Elderly people; Emotional disorders; Emotional Intelligence; Emotional Regulation; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Intrusive thought; Intrusive Thoughts; Male; Meaning; Moral aspects; Older people; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychological distress; Psychological Tests; Psychological Theory; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Recurrence; Regression Analysis; Repression, Psychology; Risk assessment; Self Concept; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Thinking - physiology; Thought Suppression; Young Adult; older adults; emotion regulation; aging; thought suppression; intrusive thoughts; Human; Affect affectivity; Relapse; Senescence; Cognition; Emotion emotionality; Thought suppression; Young adult; Intrusive thought; Self regulation; Elderly
• ISSN: 0882-7974; 1939-1498
• DOI: 10.1037/a0024249

The current
study incorporated a life span perspective into existing theories of intrusive
thoughts to examine age-related differences in the difficulty controlling
intrusive thoughts, the distress following intrusive thought recurrences, and
the meanings assigned to these recurrences. Younger (N = 51)
and older (N = 49) community adults were randomly assigned to
suppress (i.e., keep out of mind) or monitor an intrusive thought. Participants
rated their positive and negative affect throughout engagement with the
intrusive thought, and they also rated the meanings they gave to recurrences of
their everyday intrusive thoughts. The results demonstrated that older adults
tended to perceive greater difficulty with controlling the intrusive thought
than younger adults despite the fact that they did not differ in the actual
recurrence of the intrusive thought. With regard to distress, older adults
experienced steadier levels of positive affect than younger adults throughout
engagement with the intrusive thought. However, older adults also reported
greater residual negative affect after engaging with the intrusive thought than
younger adults. Finally, older and younger adults appeared to assign meanings to
recurrences of intrusive thoughts in line with age-relevant concerns.
Specifically, older adults were prone to interpret the recurrence of intrusive
thoughts as a sign of cognitive decline, but they were less likely than younger
adults to see intrusive thoughts as a sign of moral failure. Together, these
results highlight a range of potential risk and protective factors in older
adults for experiencing emotion dysregulation after intrusive thoughts.