Does emotional intelligence change with age?

What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and age? Studies of changes in positive and negative effect across the adult lifespan suggest that, despite the additional emotional challenges that older adults face, they experience more subjective well-being. In addition, studies of affective processing across the lifespan suggest that older adults may be more adept at regulating their emotions than younger adults. Taken together, these findings suggest that particular aspects of emotional intelligence may increase with age. In this study we examine age effects in three samples using two measures of emotional ability: the self-report SUEIT and the abilities-based MSCEIT. For the self-report measure effect sizes were small or non-existent. At the subscale level, it was found that the extent to which emotions are used in problem solving increases across the lifespan, particularly for females. In addition, in the larger sample, there was evidence that the ability to control strong emotions may decline across the lifespan. There were no significant age effects for the MSCEIT. The implications of these results are explored for emotional intelligence and developmental theory