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

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.

This study uses a wave of self-report data from the SPAN study of psychosocial aging.

Participants come from a representative sample of older adults in St. Louis.

Participants (N = 595) ages range from 65 to 78 (M_age = 71.46), with 18.3% of participants identifying as Black/African-American.

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.

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.

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.