Influence of age, thought content, and anxiety on suppression of intrusive thoughts.

ABSTRACT: Understanding differences in responses following attempts to suppress versus simply monitor intrusive thoughts is important given the established relationship between intrusive thinking and numerous forms of psychopathology. Moreover, these differences may vary as a function of age. Because of the links between aging and both enhancement in emotion regulation skills and decline in inhibition skills, older and younger adults were expected to differ in their responses (e.g., experience of negative affect and thought recurrence) to attempts at suppressing intrusive thoughts. This study examined whether efforts to suppress thought content that varied in valence and age-relevance differentially affected older (N=40, aged 66-92) and younger (N=42, aged 16-25) adults' ability to inhibit intrusive

SUBMITTER: Beadel JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3655132 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature