Age moderates the association between helping and meaning in daily life.

Abstract

The present study examined age differences in everyday prosocial behavior as well as its associated experienced meaning and emotions. In this study, with data collected from 2004 to 2005, a total of 180 participants aged 18-93 years completed an experience sampling procedure (five times a day for 7 days), where they reported the activities they were engaged in, the degree to which their present experiences were meaningful, and the emotions they were feeling. Age was positively associated with the frequency of helping others, and helping was related to greater experienced meaning at the between-person level. At the between-person level, helping was also associated with more positive emotional experience (and unrelated to negative emotional experience), and this effect was stronger for older than younger participants. At the within-person level, helping was associated with more momentary negative (but not positive) emotions. Within-individual analyses also showed that on occasions when participants were helping others, they reported more meaning than at moments when they were engaging in nonhelping activities. Findings are consistent with previous evidence for greater charitable giving in older people than younger people and extend prosocial acts to encompass helping others in daily life. Findings also suggest that individuals may experience negative emotions while helping others, but high overall frequencies of helping were associated with reports of greater positive emotion and meaning across adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).