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The Exchange of Emotional Support With Age and Its Relationship With Emotional Well-Being by Age

Department of Sociology, and Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.

This study tested three hypotheses derived from the application of socioemotional selectivity theory and exchange theory to the exchange of emotional support with age and its relationship with positive and negative affect by age. Data are from the Midlife in the United States study of 3,032 U.S. adults between the ages of 25 and 74. The social contact hypothesis predicts that hours of emotional support given and received should decrease with age. The exchange hypothesis predicts that the discrepancy between the hours of emotional support given and received should decrease with age to reflect more balanced exchanges with age. The goal hypothesis predicts that unequal exchanges of support should predict higher negative and lower positive affect with age. Findings supported each hypothesis. Hours of emotional support given and received decreased as chronological age increased. Although adults of all ages gave more support than they received, the discrepancy between hours of emotional support given and received became more balanced with age. Compared with equal exchanges, unequal exchanges predicted worse emotional well-being profiles only among the oldest adults in this study (i.e., those aged 55–64 and 65–74). Findings contribute to the growing literature on the changing nature of the quantity and quality of interpersonal exchanges with age.

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