Sharing the Good, Sharing the Bad The Benefits of Emotional Self-Disclosure Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults

Objective: The present study was designed to assess the impact of experimentally manipulating positive and negative self-disclosure on three domains of well-being among healthy middle-aged and older adults: emotional, psychological, and physical. Method: Using a modified self-disclosure paradigm for sad, mixed (sad and happy), and neutral content, the authors examine changes in depressive symptomatology, stress, sad and happy mood, and self-reported health across 4 weeks in a sample (N = 200) of African American and European American men and women (age M = 54 years). Results: Consistent with research on younger groups, health symptomatology declined over time (irrespective of condition). However, although African Americans reported reductions in stress and depressive symptomatology in the sad condition, European Americans experienced similar reductions only in the neutral condition. Discussion: Results are discussed in terms of applications of the self-disclosure paradigm to developmentally and ethnically diverse groups.