Sense of Purpose and Strategies for Coping with Anxiety Across Adulthood

Abstract

Abstract: Sense of purpose – the feeling that one has meaningful goals and directions in life – has consistently been connected to desirable well-being outcomes. Though these associations are robust, only a paucity of research explains why this connection exists and whether it differs across the adult lifespan. In a large cross-sectional sample ( N = 1,666; age: M = 49.44, SD = 21.55), age showed a moderate positive association with sense of purpose and a large negative association with anxiety symptoms. Sense of purpose was negatively associated with anxiety and showed moderate to strong associations with how people regulate their emotions in anxiety-inducing situations. Sense of purpose had the strongest associations with adaptive emotion-regulation strategies connected to perspective broadening: When they feel anxious, people with a higher sense of purpose were more likely to find a silver lining, focus on the big picture, and remember that the stressor will not last. Furthermore, sense of purpose moderated the relationship between age and three maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies (eating/drinking to cope, expressive suppression, and distraction). In particular, higher levels of sense of purpose correlated with a stronger negative relationship between age and the use of these strategies. We discuss the findings regarding integrating the purpose and emotion-regulation literature.