Awareness of age-related changes and happiness in daily life: Moderating effects of perceived control.

Abstract

Becoming aware of age-related losses and a perceived absence of age-related gains in late adulthood has been linked to poor well-being, such as low happiness. Perceived control, however, could buffer these detrimental effects of perceived age-related changes. To date, little is known about these associations as they unfold in daily life, limiting our understanding of how individuals can maintain happiness in the face of age-related challenges. Using data from a 14-day daily diary study, we investigated the relations between daily age-related losses and gains, daily happiness, and the moderating role of perceived control in 268 middle-aged and older adults (M_age = 64.47, SD_age = 7.76). On the between-person level, age-related losses were related to lower levels of happiness only for individuals who reported low perceived control. On the within-person level, days with more losses or fewer gains were days with lower happiness, and these relations were more pronounced on days with low perceived control. Our results indicate that experiencing more age-related losses or a lack of age-related gains was related to lower happiness, exacerbated by low control perceptions. Thus, perceived control could play an important role in maintaining happiness when facing age-related changes. Our results also attest to the idea that an improvement in self-perceptions of aging and a strengthening of perceived control should be considered when designing interventions aimed at older adults' developmental adaptation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).