Mental Health News
A team of researchers at Penn State University explored the relationship between aging and stress. The study is published in the journal Developmental Psychology.
The Study
The researchers surveyed data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE). The participants gave telephone interviews about their experiences of daily stress for eight consecutive days.
The Findings: Stress Decreases With Age
The results revealed that daily stress decreases as people age, both in terms of daily stressors and emotional reactivity to them.
The authors remarked: “There’s something about growing old [wherein stress levels change for the better]. This could be the types of social roles that we fill as we age. As younger people, we may be juggling more—including jobs, families, and homes—all of which create instances of daily stress. But as we age, our social roles and motivations change. Older people talk about wanting to maximize and enjoy the time they have.”
To Know More You May Refer To
Almeida, D. M., Rush, J., Mogle, J., Piazza, J. R., Cerino, E., & Charles, S. T. (2022). Longitudinal change in daily stress across 20 years of adulthood: Results from the national study of daily experiences. Developmental psychology, 10.1037/dev0001469. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001469