Emotional Regulation, Aesthetic Engagement, and Flow Experience Among Chinese Middle-Aged and Older Choir Members

Choral singing has become a widely practiced collective activity among middle-aged and older adults in China, raising the question of which music-related psychological mechanisms support their deep engagement in this population. Drawing on flow theory and self-determination theory, this study examined how the emotional regulation function and aesthetic and artistic engagement of music were associated with flow experience through intrinsic motivation. A mediation model was tested using structural equation modeling on data from 547 members of Chinese middle-aged and older choirs. Both emotional regulation and aesthetic and artistic engagement were positively associated with intrinsic motivation, which in turn was positively associated with flow experience. Both functions also showed significant direct associations with flow, and showed statistically significant indirect associations with flow via intrinsic motivation. Emotional regulation showed a significantly larger standardized association with intrinsic motivation than aesthetic and artistic engagement (Δβ = 0.306, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.163, 0.448]); the two functions’ direct associations with flow did not differ significantly (Δβ = 0.057, 95% CI [−0.075, 0.191]). These findings portray music functions and intrinsic motivation as mutually embedded contributors to flow, and contribute to understanding the psychological foundations of musical engagement among middle-aged and older choir members.