Discrete Negative Emotions and Goal Disengagement in Older Adulthood: Context Effects and Associations With Emotional Well-Being

This study examined whether sadness, but not anger, could facilitate adaptive goal disengagement capacity in the context of older adult's stress-related experiences. To this end, we investigated whether the within-person effects of sadness and anger on older adults' goal disengagement capacity were moderated by stress perceptions and diurnal cortisol levels. In addition, we tested whether an association between sadness and goal disengagement capacity could protect emotional well-being when older adults experience higher than normal perceived stress or cortisol. The study used data from a 6-wave 10-year longitudinal study of 184 community-dwelling older adults (M-age = 72.08, SDage = 5.70). Participants' sadness, anger, goal disengagement capacity, perceived stress, diurnal cortisol levels, emotional well-being (i.e., positive and negative affect), and sociodemographic variables were assessed at each wave. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that within-person increases in sadness, but not anger, predicted increased goal disengagement capacity among older adults who generally secreted high levels of cortisol. Moreover, older adults' who disengaged more easily when they felt sad were protected from declines in positive affect during assessments in which they secreted high, but not low, levels of cortisol. The study's findings suggest that generally enhanced cortisol output may facilitate an association between sadness and older adults' goal disengagement capacity and that this process may protect against declines in emotional well-being.