Metacognition and executive functioning as predictors of functional independence in community-dwelling older adults:...

Functional independence in older adulthood requires cognitive capacity and the ability to monitor, regulate, and adapt behavior in everyday contexts. To synthesize evidence on associations between executive-function and metacognitive or self-regulatory processes and functional independence in cognitively healthy, community-dwelling older adults, and to use bibliometric mapping as a secondary method to examine whether these research traditions have developed in an integrated or fragmented manner. A PRISMA 2020 systematic review with secondary bibliometric mapping was conducted. Forty studies were charted; after an eligibility and measurement-classification re-audit, 30 were retained in the core synthesis. Study characteristics, constructs, outcomes, and assessment modalities were extracted. Five studies contributed executive-function evidence without a metacognitive or self-regulatory measure, 16 examined executive functioning with a metacognitive or self-regulatory indicator, and nine examined executive functioning alongside an adjacent functional-cognitive construct. No study examined a metacognitive or self-regulatory predictor without an executive-function measure. Executive-function measures were frequently associated with instrumental activities of daily living, functional capacity, everyday cognition, adherence, and simulated everyday-task outcomes. Metacognitive and self-regulatory evidence was smaller and more heterogeneous, involving self-appraisal, awareness, error monitoring, checking behavior, and strategy use. Evidence was predominantly cross-sectional and associative. Bibliometric mapping indicated partially separate intellectual traditions. Executive functioning is the more consistently studied correlate of functional independence in healthy aging. Metacognitive and self-regulatory processes may contribute to functional adaptation, but their independent contribution remains insufficiently established. Future longitudinal, experimental, and multimodal research should integrate executive-function assessment, direct metacognitive measures, contextual determinants, and everyday-life functional outcomes.