'Emotional contagion' appears to be a factor in the mental health of seniors

Madeleine and Paul are sitting on a bench in the park. As she tells Paul about her financial worries and how she has been struggling to make ends meet for months, Madeleine gets tears in her eyes. Paul is moved by her grief; her misery resonates with him and heightens his own fears. His heart becomes heavy and his own eyes also become moist.

What's going on? A kind of behavioral mirroring, what psychologists call 'emotional contagion'.

“Just as some people are at greater risk of contracting a respiratory virus through close contact, others are more susceptible to 'catching' the emotions of those around them,” explains Marie-Josée Richer, a psychologist educator at the Institut Université de Gériatrie de Montréal. , affiliated with the Université de Montréal, who conducted PhD research on the subject in the elderly.

“A person who is vulnerable to emotional contagion is particularly sensitive to the emotions of others,” says Pierrich Plusquellec, professor at the UdeM School of Psychoeducation and co-director of the Center for Studies on Human Stress. “It is an adaptive response that occurs unconsciously by mimicking facial expressions, gestures and postures, bringing together the emotions.”

For example, he said, “A person with this sensitivity may feel physically tense when they see angry people on TV, burst into tears when they see someone crying, or feel happier when they come into contact with a happy person. To measure vulnerability to emotional contagion, look at a range of emotions: joy, love, anger, fear. Emotional contagion plays an essential role in a society because it is the basis of empathy.

But this vulnerability can be a double-edged sword. In a new study co-supervised by Plusquellec and UdeM psychology professor Sébastien Grenier and published in PLOS mental healthRicher found that vulnerability to emotional contagion is greater among seniors suffering from mental health problems.

“This research was part of my work on psychological resilience in older adults,” she said. “The main goal was to better understand the factors that influence the resilience of seniors to help prevent psychological problems, which can have serious consequences for the overall health of seniors, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline and premature mortality.”

The study found that vulnerability to emotional contagion varies from person to person, just as personality traits do, and is something that is often overlooked in mental health studies, especially among older people.

Group of 170 adults studied

The UdeM researchers studied a group of 170 adults aged 55 or older who were living in retirement homes in Quebec or using the services of community organizations and who were experiencing some form of adversity. Adversity was defined as challenges, obstacles, or difficult circumstances that an individual may face, such as grief or conflict with a loved one (explicit adversity) or vulnerability to emotional contagion (implicit adversity).

The study was part of a larger project evaluating the effects of a program to manage stress and stress contagion. To be included, participants had to live in a Quebec metropolitan area, speak French and be interested in group stress management techniques. The researchers sought a broad sample, including individuals with varying levels of mental health problems and physical disabilities, to be representative of the general population.

Data was collected between September 2018 and September 2019. Most participants – 85% – were women. They ranged in age from 56 to 96, with an average of 76.1. Most were born in Canada and lived alone.

Participants were divided into three groups based on the level of psychological distress:

• Nearly 45% meet the anxiety profile, with only clinical or subclinical symptoms of anxiety.
• Approximately 20% were classified in the anxious depression profile, with clinical or subclinical symptoms of both anxiety and depression.
• The final group, the no-distress profile, consisted of individuals without significant symptoms of anxiety or depression.

“We classify symptoms of varying intensity that are strong enough to disrupt a person's daily life as 'subclinical' or 'clinical,'” Grenier explains.

“Symptoms are clinical if they meet the criteria for a formal diagnosis of anxiety or depression. For example, a person with clinical anxiety may experience frequent panic attacks, difficulty leaving the house, and social isolation. A person with subclinical anxiety would not have a formal anxiety disorder. diagnosis, but may experience physical symptoms and concerns that affect their daily functioning.”

Up to 10 times more symptomatic

The researchers analyzed levels of psychological problems in relation to factors such as gender, age, income, living situation, independence, satisfaction with the social network and the way a person deals with setbacks, and in relation to an emotional contagion scale that measures the vulnerability of subjects. in this regard.

The results show that the seniors who were most vulnerable to emotional contagion were 8.5 to 10 times more likely to exhibit symptoms of anxiety or anxious depression than those who were less vulnerable. This finding was independent of other factors, such as an individual's social support or coping strategies.

The study marks the first time vulnerability to emotional contagion has been examined as a determinant of psychological distress in seniors, the researchers say.

Although they did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between vulnerability to emotional contagion and psychological distress, their research does highlight the importance of considering both explicit and implicit adversities to identify seniors at risk for psychological distress.

In communal living environments, such as senior homes, and in informal care situations, the risks of emotional contagion must be proactively addressed, the researchers argue. They recommend developing tools to help those most vulnerable to emotional contagion better manage this sensitivity. This could strengthen their psychological resilience and improve their quality of life.

The researchers also suggest future studies on moderators of vulnerability to emotional contagion to improve our understanding of its impact on mental health and help reduce psychological distress in older adults.