Day-to-Day associations between social interaction valence and awareness of age-related change

OBJECTIVES: Awareness of age-related change (AARC) reflects how individuals perceive aging through daily gains and losses. Social interactions constitute a central context of everyday life in which such perceptions may be shaped, yet little is known about their short-term interplay in daily life. The present study examined same-day and next-day associations between AARC-gains and losses and the perceived positivity and negativity of daily social interactions in middle-aged and older adults.

METHODS: Using a 14-day daily diary design, we assessed 109 adults aged 50-85 years (M = 63.16, SD = 9.17), yielding 1,502 daily observations. Dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM) was used to disentangle within-person dynamics from stable between-person differences.

RESULTS: At the within-person level, days characterized by higher-than-usual AARC-gains were associated with more positive social interactions, whereas days marked by higher-than-usual AARC-losses were associated with less positive and more negative social interactions. Regarding temporal associations, higher-than-usual AARC-losses predicted increased negativity of social interactions on the following day, whereas daily social interaction valence did not predict next-day changes in AARC-gains or losses.

DISCUSSION: Overall, the findings indicate that daily AARC is closely embedded in everyday social experience and highlight age-related losses as particularly consequential for the short-term perception of negative social interactions. (205 words).