Physical activity promotes life satisfaction via attitude toward own aging: Evidence from a three-wave random...

To examine the cross-lagged association between physical activity and life satisfaction, and the mediating role of attitudes toward one's own aging among older adults.

This study utilized data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS), involving 2063 older adults who participated in 2014, 2018 and 2022. Analyses were conducted in Mplus 8.3. A Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) was applied to examine the coefficients at the between-person and within-person levels, using the physical activity item, Attitude Toward Own Aging (ATOA), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) to test both direct and indirect pathways.

The results shows that: (1) Measurement invariance of the scales across waves was sequentially supported at the configural, metric, scalar, and strict levels. (2) Direct effects: at the between-person level, PA was positively correlated with LS (r = 0.34, p < 0.001), whereas within-person cross-lagged effects were non-significant across waves (e.g., PA2014 → LS2018: β = -0.02, 95% CI [-0.11, 0.06]). (3) Indirect effects: for indirect effects, at the between-person level, higher PA was associated with greater ATOA and, in turn, higher LS (all β > 0.30, 95% CIs excluding zero), whereas at the within-person level, the indirect effect PA2014 → ATOA2018 → LS2022 was nonsignificant (β = -0.003, 95% CI [-0.07, 0.03]).

The findings of this study reveal the long-term effects of PA on LS at both the within-person and between-person levels among older adults, providing empirical evidence for the role of PA as a psychological intervention in this population.