Sara M. Moorman

Being in the company of other people is a key determinant of emotional well-being, including positive affect. Many spaces where older adults spend time alone are also social spaces, but less is known about whether simply being in the vicinity of other people matters for positive affect. The authors distinguish between two social states: being with others (purposeful social company) and being around others (sharing space with people who are not focal social companions). In a series of multilevel models, the authors examined whether being with others and being around others have independent and interactive associations with positive affect. The authors used data from 12,860 ecological momentary assessments collected from 352 older adults living in Chicago in 2018 and 2019. Both being with others and being around others were independently associated with greater positive affect. Being alone, but around others, was associated with greater positive affect than being alone with no others around. Positive affect was highest when older adults were simultaneously with and around others. These findings suggest that both direct companionship and the broader social environment contribute to older adults’ emotional well-being. Interventions and policies that create opportunities for older adults to spend time in social spaces, even without a companion, may support emotional well-being.

Background: Remaining socially active may be especially critical for quality of life as death approaches, as it affords access to necessary support, health advice, a sense of autonomy, and personal resources (e.g., coping, resilience) that shape end‐of‐life experiences. We aimed to examine (a) how older adults' engagement in social activities changes during the years before death, and (b) whether trajectories of engagement in these activities differ depending on physical and cognitive function. Participants and Setting: We analyzed 22,993 annual observations from 4667 participants in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), a U.S. nationally‐representative, longitudinal study of Medicare recipients aged 65 and older who died between 2012 and 2024. Methods: We used logistic growth curve models to test how participation in each of 5 activities—visiting with family or friends, religious service attendance, organized group activities, going out for enjoyment, and volunteering—changed over the 13 years prior to death. Key predictors included physical and cognitive function. Results: Findings indicated that older adults' participation in all 5 social activities declined during this final period of the life course, with considerable variation across activities. There was strong evidence that physical and cognitive function affected initial levels of participation, but minimal evidence that physical or cognitive function affected trajectories of decline. Conclusions: Community‐based interventions to improve physical accessibility and dementia awareness may be important avenues for supporting social activity engagement among people in the last stage of life, particularly among older adults living independently in their communities.

Objectives: We test whether adolescent cognitive, social, and physical activities in addition to school (i.e., extracurricular activities) are associated with cognitive performance in older adulthood. Methods: We analyze data from the 2018 Project Talent Aging Study, a non-representative sample of participants from the 1960 Project Talent, a large-scale study of U.S. high school students. Our analytic sample includes 2,405 participants who completed testing of verbal fluency and word recall at an average age of 75 years. We measured three categories of extracurricular activities: cognitive, social, and physical/athletic. We used multilevel modeling to account for clustering of students within schools while controlling for individual and school-level covariates. Results: Greater adolescent cognitive extracurricular activity was significantly associated with better verbal fluency, and to a lesser extent, recall, in later life. Social and physical extracurricular activities were not significantly associated with verbal fluency or recall performance. Discussion: Our findings show that cognitive extracurricular activities in adolescence build cognitive reserve and support verbal fluency and word recall across the life course. These results highlight the important role of early-life experiences for healthy cognitive aging and suggest that promoting extracurricular cognitive engagement during adolescence may have lasting cognitive benefits.

Objectives: People tend to choose marital partners who are similar to themselves, and spouses become increasingly similar in some respects due to shared life experiences. However, it is unknown whether spousal similarity contributes to the health of married people in later life. This study investigates whether and how spousal similarity in outlook on life is linked to later-life well-being. Methods: We used data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a long-running prospective study following graduates from Wisconsin high schools in 1957 and their selected siblings. We measured perceived spousal similarity in outlook on life at both the individual (i.e., self-evaluation) and couple (i.e., concordance/discordance in evaluations between spouses) levels when participants were, 65 years old, on average. Later-life well-being was measured by self-rated general health, functional limitations, loneliness, depression, and cognitive health 16 years later. Results: Reporting strong spousal similarity in outlook on life was associated with lower risks of loneliness and cognitive impairment in later life, after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, spousal similarity in other aspects, individual outlook on life, marital quality, and marital dissolution. Compared with both spouses reporting “very similar,” reporting less spousal similarity than the spouse was associated with higher risks of loneliness and cognitive impairment, after controlling for those covariates. Discussion: Spousal similarity is an important marital attribute that could shape health inequality among married people. It is associated with less loneliness and cognitive impairment in later life. Self-perception of spousal similarity appears to better predict later-life well-being than concordance/discordance in both spouses’ evaluations.

Objectives: There is growing recognition that social participation may help attenuate cognitive decline in older ages. Unfortunately, previous research often relies on participation index measures, which may obfuscate associations among cognition, specific activities, and the frequency of partaking in those activities. Methods: Data are from six waves of the Health and Retirement Study ( N = 20,696). Regression models test how associations between social participation and cognition vary by social activity and by multiple specifications of activity frequency. Results: Using a participation index, any new activity or increase in activity frequency was positively associated with cognition. When segregating activities, only three activities had positive associations: meeting friends, volunteering, and being a part of community organizations. We find limited evidence that activity frequency is an important moderator. Discussion: Social activities likely have heterogeneous associations with older adult cognition. The frequency threshold linking social participation to cognition may be “any” regular participation in select activities.

Objectives: Relying on the linked lives concept within the life course perspective, the current study examined the lifelong associations of sibling relationships and their effects on cognitive functioning in late adulthood. Methods: Using data from the sibling cohort of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, we estimated a mediational model, examining the effects of childhood sibling interactions and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), as proxy measures for the parent–child relationship, on cognitive functioning in late adulthood through adult sibling closeness and contact. Respondents’ cognitive functioning was assessed using the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status-modified (TICS-m) when they were in their early 80s, on average. We conducted multilevel structural equation modeling. Results: Positive childhood sibling interactions (e.g., hugging, helping) were associated with increased adult sibling closeness and contact, whereas higher cumulative ACEs were associated with decreased adult sibling closeness and contact. We found significant indirect associations: (a) positive sibling interactions during childhood were associated with more frequent sibling contact across respondents’ mid-50s through early 70s, which was in turn associated with higher TICS-m scores in their early 80s; (b) higher cumulative ACEs were associated with less frequent sibling contact, which was in turn associated with lower TICS-m scores. Discussion: The results suggest that childhood experiences within the family of origin may have lasting effects on adult sibling relationships and the cognitive functioning of older adults. This study highlights the potential cognitive benefits of frequent contact with adult siblings, underscoring the importance of nurturing sibling relationships throughout one’s life.

Most research on the strong relationship between education and cognitive aging has focused on years of schooling. Using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study—a sample of White persons born in 1939—we explored whether greater curricular rigor in high school was also associated with better cognitive function in later life. We estimated multilevel structural equation models in data from 2,749 participants who attended 308 Wisconsin high schools, graduating in 1957. Independent of academic ability and performance and school-level financial and material resources, a more rigorous high school curriculum was associated with significantly better global cognitive functioning in 2020, when most participants were 81 years old. There was also a significant mediation via eventual degree attainment. The mediation was moderated such that men and participants from high socioeconomic status families benefited most from a rigorous curriculum. We discuss implications for modern educational policy.

Introduction: Formal educational attainment, or years of schooling, has a well-established positive effect on cognitive health across the life course. We hypothesized that the content and difficulty of the curriculum influence this relationship, such that more challenging curricula in high school lead to higher levels of socioeconomic attainment in adulthood and, in turn, to better cognitive outcomes in older adulthood. Methods: We estimated multilevel structural equation models (MSEMs) in data from 2,405 individuals who attended one of 1,312 US high schools in 1960 and participated in the Project Talent Aging Study in 2018. Results: A college preparatory curriculum and a greater number of semesters of math and science in high school were positively related to word recall and verbal fluency at an average age of 75. Effects were robust to controlling for adolescent cognitive ability, academic performance, socioeconomic background, and school characteristics. Discussion: We discuss the implications of these findings for educational policy.

Objectives: The current study examined the associations between lifetime abuse victimization and prospective health outcomes in late adulthood. Methods: Data from 4907 older adults (mean age = 80) from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study were analyzed. Multivariate analyses examined the associations of lifetime abuse victimization with depression, physical health status, and memory. Results: Greater exposure to lifetime abuse was associated with a significantly higher risk of depression (OR = 1.13, CI: [1.08, 1.19], p < .001) and a greater number of limitations in physical functioning ( b = .08, SE = .02, p < .001), but not with memory performance ( b = .01, SE = .14, p > .05). Discussion: Our results support the interrelations of interpersonal violence across the life course and the lasting health effects of exposure to lifetime abuse. Findings highlight the need for a life course-based, trauma-informed approach in prevention and intervention programs for older adults.

This study assessed the extent to which associations between perceived and received social support from family and friends and changes in older adults’ cognitive function were moderated by educational attainment. Sibling pairs in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) ( N = 4,297) completed a survey about social support in 2011 and a cognitive battery in 2011 and 2020. Participants’ mean age in 2020 was 80.2 years old. Multilevel linear regressions indicated that perceived, but not received, support from friends was associated with better cognitive function 9 years later. Perceived family support was cognitively advantageous for older adults at most levels of educational attainment. However, among postgraduates, perceived family support was unrelated to cognitive function. That the association between perceived support and cognitive function differs based on educational attainment gives interventionists additional information needed to identify groups of older adults most susceptible to cognitive impairment.