Navigating life’s twists and turns: characteristics of life events across adulthood

This study examines whether there are age-related differences in the experience of life events across adulthood. We hypothesized that older adults would report life events that are less anticipated, less normative, less controllable, less positive, and more strenuous than younger adults due to increasing developmental losses and decreasing gains. We investigated how age (linear, quadratic, and cubic) relates to life-event characteristics by comparing different events and analyzing the same events across individuals, to distinguish between the effects observed across life events and those that emerge after accounting for the specific life event in question. Additionally, we hypothesized that older adults would cope better with less favorable events due to their life experience and emotion regulation skills. Analyses of 6,688 participants (18–90 years) showed that while older adults reported less favorable life events, they coped better with the same events than younger adults. The results underscore the importance of distinguishing between age and life event effects. They also show that life-event characteristics are consistently linked to well-being throughout adulthood.