Social participation and cognitive function in Chinese older couples: Urban-rural variations in partner effects

Past research has established gender differences in the way spouses affect each other's health, but tends to overlook the role of contextual factors such as urban-rural residence. Urban and rural areas provide types of different opportunities for social participation, with married men and women mobilizing these resources differently for both their own and their partner's benefit. We examined whether one spouse's social engagement is associated with the other's cognition, focusing on how urban-rural context moderates cross-spousal associations.

The analytical sample comprised of couples where both spouses were 45 years of age and above (N = 3048) from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Using five waves of dyadic data from 2011 to 2020, we used multilevel modeling to estimate an actor-partner interdependence model, exploring the dyadic associations between social participation and cognitive function within couples, as well as whether observed actor and partner effects differed by urban-rural residence.

At the between-person level, individuals with higher average levels of informal social participation showed higher cognitive functioning for both husbands and wives across urban and rural settings. These between-person associations for formal participation were stronger in urban areas, particularly for wives. Significant partner effects emerged exclusively at the within-person level with urban-rural contrasts: urban wives' increased formal participation was positively associated with husbands' cognitive functioning (β = 0.296, p < .01), while rural husbands' increased informal participation was negatively associated with wives' cognitive functioning (β = -0.062, p < .05).

These findings demonstrate that dyadic interdependence patterns in couples' cognitive function vary significantly across contextual environments. Future research should examine the mechanisms underlying these variations and consider contextual factors when developing cognitive health interventions for older couples.