Time-savoring moderates associations of solitude with depressive mood, loneliness, and somatic symptoms in older adults' daily life

Abstract

Episodes of solitude (being alone and without social interaction) are common in older age and can relate to decreased well-being. Identifying everyday resources that help maintain older adults' well-being in states of solitude is thus important. We investigated associations of daily solitude with subjective and physical well-being under consideration of time-savoring (i.e., attending to positive experiences and upregulating positive emotions). 108 older adults aged 65–92 years (M = 73.11, SD = 5.93; 58% women; 85% born in Switzerland) took part in an app-based daily diary study in 2022. Over 14 consecutive days, participants reported daily solitude, time-savoring, depressive mood, loneliness, and somatic symptoms in an end-of-day diary. Multilevel models revealed that participants reported higher depressive mood and loneliness, but not higher somatic symptoms on days on which they spent more time in solitude than usual. Higher-than-usual daily time-savoring was associated with lower depressive mood, loneliness, and somatic symptoms. Associations of solitude with depressive mood, loneliness, and somatic symptoms were weaker on days on which higher time-savoring than usual was reported. Findings highlight the potential of everyday time-savoring as a resource in older adults in the context of increased solitude.