title: The effects of daily co-occurrence of affect on older adults' reactivity to health stressors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study examined age differences among older adults in the daily co-occurrence of affect and its potential role in buffering the negative effects of health stressors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were from the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study and included 249 young-old adults (age = 60-79 years, M = 71.6) and 64 old-old adults (age = 80-89, M = 82.9) who completed questionnaires assessing stressors, physical health symptoms, and positive and negative affect for eight consecutive days.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An independent samples t-test showed young-old and old-old adults did not significantly differ in their mean levels of daily co-occurrence of affect. The between-person relationships among stressors, health and daily co-occurrence of affect revealed that neither stressors nor health were significantly related to daily co-occurrence of affect. However, results from a multilevel model revealed a three-way cross-level interaction (health stressor × age group × co-occurrence of affect) where old-old adults with higher levels of co-occurrence of affect were less emotionally reactive to health stressors than young-old adults.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings provide support for the assertion that co-occurrence of affect functions in an adaptive capacity and highlight the importance of examining domain-specific stressors.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , North Carolina State University Raleigh , NC , USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ramsey
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , North Carolina State University Raleigh , NC , USA.
authors.forename: Shevaun D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Neupert
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology Nortwestern University , Evanston , IL , USA.
authors.forename: Daniel K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Mroczek
authors.affiliation: c Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiologic Research and Information Center (MAVERIC), VA Boston Healthcare System; Department of Epidemiology , Boston University School of Public Health ; and Department of Psychiatry , Boston University School of Medicine , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Avron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spiro
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: aging; daily co-occurrence of affect; health stress; negative affect