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Background <p>An increasing age of the workforce necessitates a better understanding of age-related differences in emotions at work to inform age-inclusive workplace policies and practices. This review critically evaluates how age relates to emotion-regulatory strategies at work (emotional labour and emotion regulation), emotional work demands, and associated health and work outcomes.</p> Methods <p>Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically reviewed studies examining relationships between age, emotion-regulatory strategies, emotional work demands, and health/work outcomes. A completed PRISMA 2020 checklist is provided in the Supplementary Materials. Twenty-six studies were included and synthesized narratively.</p> Results <p>Across studies, no generalisable pattern of age-related differences emerged. While several studies reported age differences in the associations between emotion-regulatory strategies and health or work outcomes, often indicating comparatively more favourable outcomes among older workers, these findings were not consistently observed across studies, with some studies reporting reversed or null effects. Moreover, studies reporting age differences varied in what aspect these differences reflected, including variation in the frequency or type of strategies used, as well as differences in how these strategies related to outcomes across age. Similarly, associations between emotional work demands and outcomes varied by age in some studies but did not follow a uniform pattern. Overall, the evidence suggests that while age-related differences in these associations are sometimes observed, they are inconsistent, not systematically associated with advantage or disadvantage for any age group, and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear.</p> Conclusion <p>Age did not emerge as a robust determinant of how emotion-regulatory strategies or emotional work demands relate to health and work outcomes. The findings underscore the need for more integrative, theoretically grounded, and methodologically rigorous approaches that better account for how age, emotional work demands, regulation, and outcomes are linked, while addressing key conceptual and design challenges.</p> Trial registration <p>PROSPERO CRD42022300000, published on 10 May 2022.</p>

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The influence of age on emotion-regulatory strategies, emotional work demands, and health/work outcomes: a systematic PRISMA literature review with narrative synthesis

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年8月5日

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  • Tímea Zsuzsanna Popucza,
  • Lars Eriksson,
  • Bernice Skytt,
  • Anna Bjärtå,
  • Mårten Eriksson

摘要

Background

An increasing age of the workforce necessitates a better understanding of age-related differences in emotions at work to inform age-inclusive workplace policies and practices. This review critically evaluates how age relates to emotion-regulatory strategies at work (emotional labour and emotion regulation), emotional work demands, and associated health and work outcomes.

Methods

Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically reviewed studies examining relationships between age, emotion-regulatory strategies, emotional work demands, and health/work outcomes. A completed PRISMA 2020 checklist is provided in the Supplementary Materials. Twenty-six studies were included and synthesized narratively.

Results

Across studies, no generalisable pattern of age-related differences emerged. While several studies reported age differences in the associations between emotion-regulatory strategies and health or work outcomes, often indicating comparatively more favourable outcomes among older workers, these findings were not consistently observed across studies, with some studies reporting reversed or null effects. Moreover, studies reporting age differences varied in what aspect these differences reflected, including variation in the frequency or type of strategies used, as well as differences in how these strategies related to outcomes across age. Similarly, associations between emotional work demands and outcomes varied by age in some studies but did not follow a uniform pattern. Overall, the evidence suggests that while age-related differences in these associations are sometimes observed, they are inconsistent, not systematically associated with advantage or disadvantage for any age group, and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

Conclusion

Age did not emerge as a robust determinant of how emotion-regulatory strategies or emotional work demands relate to health and work outcomes. The findings underscore the need for more integrative, theoretically grounded, and methodologically rigorous approaches that better account for how age, emotional work demands, regulation, and outcomes are linked, while addressing key conceptual and design challenges.

Trial registration

PROSPERO CRD42022300000, published on 10 May 2022.