Acceptance as a cognitive emotion regulation strategy across the lifespan

Older adults tend to report maintained or even improved emotional wellbeing compared to younger adults, raising the question of how this age difference emerges. Evidence to date does not support consistent age differences in emotion regulation behaviors, but this may be because few studies have investigated changes in acceptance across the lifespan. Acceptance is a cognitive emotion regulation strategy that involves choosing to not alter an emotional event, but rather allowing oneself to experience the emotions that naturally arise. There is recent evidence to suggest that acceptance use increases across the lifespan, which may be due to interactions between elicitors/outcomes of acceptance and the aging process: elicitors of acceptance may be more prominent in older adulthood and the affective outcomes of acceptance may be more aligned with older adults’ ideal affect. Cognitive aspects of acceptance use are also important to consider in light of age-related changes in cognition; these cognitive considerations point to additional possible explanations for older adults’ increased acceptance use but also set cognitive prerequisites for engaging in acceptance. In the pursuit of understanding the mechanisms of age-related increases in emotional wellbeing, we conclude that acceptance will be especially important to consider for future work.