The Roles of Age and Depression in Affective Responsivity to Daily Positive Events

Depression can present severe challenges in daily functioning for individuals across the adult lifespan. Growing older is associated with strengths in emotion regulation (ER) and physiological challenges that can influence depressive symptoms. Affective responsivity (changes in levels of positive affect (PA) or negative affect (NA) in response to an event) may be an indicator of ER disturbances and emotional instability in individuals with depression where previous research has found a “mood brightening” (MB) pattern characterized by increased affective responsivity to positive events. Past work, however, primarily examines MB in younger adult samples and does not evaluate age-related patterns. Using waves 2 and 3 of the Midlife in the United States Study and National Study of Daily Experiences, we examined cross-sectional baseline age differences and longitudinal changes in MB. The analytic sample comprised of 2,022 participants (M _age =58.61 years, SD = 12.12, Range = 35–86; 10.63% screened positive for depression). Across 8 consecutive days in ~ 2005 and ~ 10 years later, participants reported on their positive affect, negative affect, and frequency of positive events. Multilevel models evaluated age patterns in MB with statistical adjustment for sociodemographic and structural covariates. MB was amplified among older adults such that older adults who screened positive for depression had more PA responsivity to positive events than younger adults. Further, the magnitude of MB decreased across the 10-year follow-up, especially for comparatively older adults in the sample. Results are discussed with implications for identifying potential early daily markers of depression risk and informing personalized, age-inclusive healthcare approaches.