Being Social May Be Purposeful in Older Adulthood: A Measurement Burst Design

Pfund, Gabrielle N.; Hofer, Matthias; Allemand, Mathias; Hill, Patrick L.

doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2021.11.009

Cited by 30 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Toward this end, researchers have begun to consider sense of purpose, defined as the perception that one has an overarching aim or direction guiding them through life and influencing daily engagements (Ryff, 1989;Scheier et al, 2006). The focus on this disposition is informed by its connections to cognitive performance (Dewitte et al, 2021;Lewis et al, 2017;Sutin et al, 2022;Windsor et al, 2015), healthy behaviors (Hill et al, 2019;Kim et al, 2020), and social connections (Pfund, Hofer, et al, 2021;Weston et al, 2021). Sense of purpose has been shown to be a powerful promoter of healthy aging (Pfund and Hill, 2018;Pfund and Lewis, 2020;Zaslavsky et al, 2014), with recent evidence suggesting that it may be protective against constructs like depressive symptoms in the maintenance of higher cognitive functioning (Lewis and Hill, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sense of purpose as a potential buffer between mental health and subjective cognitive decline

Pfund

Spears

Norton

et al. 2022

Int. Psychogeriatr.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: Purposeful adults may experience greater cognitive resilience because sense of purpose may help buffer against the effects of depressive symptoms and loneliness. We also evaluated whether these associations differed by race. Design: This study uses a wave of self-report data from the SPAN study of psychosocial aging. Setting: Participants come from a representative sample of older adults in St. Louis. Participants: Participants (N = 595) ages range from 65 to 78 (Mage = 71.46), with 18.3% of participants identifying as Black/African-American. Measures: Sense of purpose was assessed with the Life Engagement Test, depressive symptoms with the Beck Depression Inventory-II, loneliness with the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and subjective cognitive decline with the AD-8. Results: Correlational analyses supported predictions that sense of purpose was negatively related to subjective cognitive decline, whereas depressive symptoms and loneliness were positively related (|r|s > .30, ps < .001). For loneliness, but not depression, this association was moderated by sense of purpose (b = −0.43, p < .001). A relatively high sense of purpose attenuated associations between loneliness and subjective cognitive decline. A three-way race × purpose × loneliness interaction (b = −0.25, p = .021) revealed that the buffering effects of sense of purpose on subjective cognitive decline were stronger for Black adults. Discussion: This study provided partial support for the buffering hypothesis, showing that sense of purpose may help mitigate the cognitive decrements associated with loneliness. Future research needs to consider how purpose-promoting programs may support healthy cognitive aging, particularly among Black older adults and those who experience greater social isolation.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sense of purpose as a potential buffer between mental health and subjective cognitive decline

Pfund

Spears

Norton

et al. 2022

Int. Psychogeriatr.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Notably, romantic relationship quality showed incredibly high levels of stability, limiting the amount of change the sense of purpose would be able to predict. Even though sense of purpose also showed strong stability across the three months, it is seen that initial romantic relationship quality still predicted later sense of purpose, aligning with past work suggesting the importance of positive and supportive connections with others for sense of purpose (Pfund et al, 2021; Weston et al, 2020). With sense of purpose showing greater rank order stability in middle‐aged adulthood and less rank order stability in younger and older adulthood (Mann et al, 2021), future work should consider whether positive romantic relationships may play a larger role in purpose maintenance and enhancement earlier and later in the lifespan.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Another possibility is that sense of purpose and relationship qualities are linked through their shared associations with psychological well‐being. Sense of purpose is strongly associated with lower depressive symptoms (e.g., Pfund et al, 2021), and depression is a known risk factor for multiple aspects of relationship dysfunction (e.g., Davila, 2001 for a review). As such, it may be that purposeful individuals are less prone to depressive symptoms and that this assists them with romantic relationships.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given that this work suggests that better romantic relationship quality may help bolster a higher sense of purpose, it is important to consider whether this extends to other relationship types, especially when considering that people who were not in romantic relationships reported a lower sense of purpose. Past research on college students has found that a higher sense of purpose is connected to greater relationship satisfaction and stability with friends and parents (Pfund, Bono, & Hill, 2020), although research on older adults has found social support and positive social interactions are connected to a higher sense of purpose (Pfund et al, 2021; Weston et al, 2020). However, with the current study emphasizing the importance of positive romantic relationships for bolstering a higher sense of purpose, future research should consider whether relationship types outside of the romantic relationship context may help promote purpose maintenance and growth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, a transactional approach may be critical for evaluating associations between these variables. Research has found that on days in which people have more positive social interactions, they also report a higher sense of purpose for that day (Pfund et al, 2021). Research has also moved beyond social interactions to consider perceptions of one's support structure.…”

Section: Correlated Change In Sense Of Purpose and Relationship Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Correlated change in sense of purpose and romantic relationship quality

Pfund

Hill

2022

Personal Relationships

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sense of purpose, or feeling that one has personally meaningful goals and directions guiding them through life, consistently predicts a variety of desirable well‐being, health, and social outcomes. However, work has been limited with respect to evaluating it as a predictor and promoter of romantic relationships or how purpose may develop in these contexts. For instance, healthy romantic relationships could also help individuals develop and maintain a higher sense of purpose. With cross‐sectional evidence finding positive associations between sense of purpose and romantic relationship commitment and satisfaction, the current study expanded on past work by using longitudinal data with three months between two measurement occasions (Time 1: N = 2243; Time 2: N = 1284) to evaluate whether sense of purpose predicted relationship status over time and how changes in relationship quality and sense of purpose were associated. Results showed that a greater sense of purpose predicted maintaining a romantic relationship but did not predict later romantic relationship quality, although higher romantic relationship quality predicted an increase in sense of purpose. Findings are discussed regarding why people with a higher sense of purpose may be more likely to stay in relationships as well as the role that positive romantic relationships may play in helping maintain a higher sense of purpose.

show abstract

Purpose in life and stress: Momentary associations from a micro‐longitudinal study

Sutin,

Luchetti,

Stephan

et al. 2024

Stress and Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose in life is an aspect of well‐being associated with less subjective stress. The present research sought to expand this literature by testing the association between both dispositional and momentary purpose with stress in daily life using a micro‐longitudinal study design. Participants (N = 303) reported their dispositional purpose at baseline and reported their momentary purpose and stress three times a day for 8 days. Between‐person, dispositional purpose was associated with less momentary stress across the 8 days tested with linear regression (β = −0.29, 95% CI = −0.39, −18, p < 0.001); it was unrelated to variability in stress (β = 0.05, 95% CI = −0.05, 0.14, p = 0.310). In contrast, the within‐person analysis tested with multilevel modelling indicated that in moments when participants felt more purpose‐driven than their average, they felt more stressed (b = 0.09, 95% CI = 0.06, 0.12, SE = 0.01, p < 0.001). This association was slightly stronger among participants with relatively lower dispositional purpose (binteraction = −0.04, SE = 0.02, 95% CI = −0.08, −0.01, p = 0.032). This study replicated the negative association between dispositional purpose and subjective stress when stress was measured at moments in daily life. It also found that feeling more purpose‐driven than usual in the moment is stressful, a counterintuitive finding that, if replicated, suggests that striving for purpose can be stressful in the moment, even if feeling more purposeful in general is associated with lower stress.

show abstract

Being Social May Be Purposeful in Older Adulthood: A Measurement Burst Design

Cited by 30 publications

References 38 publications

Sense of purpose as a potential buffer between mental health and subjective cognitive decline

Sense of purpose as a potential buffer between mental health and subjective cognitive decline

Correlated change in sense of purpose and romantic relationship quality

Purpose in life and stress: Momentary associations from a micro‐longitudinal study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About