Older and Less Deviant Reactions to Abusive Supervision? A Moderated Mediation Model of Age and Cognitive Reappraisal

Given the significant costs of abusive supervision and the broad implications of an increasingly aging workforce, scholars have called for examining the role of employee age in the abusive supervision literature. In response to this call, this study introduced a moderated mediation model of age, abusive supervision, cognitive reappraisal, and workplace deviance based on socioemotional selectivity theory. We tested this model with a sample of 614 working adults. Results suggest that employee age significantly moderated the effect of abusive supervision on cognitive reappraisal such that abusive supervision was negatively related to cognitive reappraisal for younger workers, but not for older workers. Cognitive reappraisal was negatively related to workplace (i.e., interpersonal and organizational) deviance. Furthermore, there was a significant moderated mediation effect where the indirect relationship between abusive supervision and workplace deviance via cognitive reappraisal was significant for younger workers, but not for older workers. Our findings suggest that older workers' emotional competencies (e.g., use of cognitive reappraisal) may account for age-related advantages in coping with abusive supervision. Theoretical and implications were discussed.