Antonio Terracciano

This study examined how loneliness relates to physical activity at between-person and within-person (daily and momentary) levels. Adults in committed relationships ( n = 291; ages 40–70) completed a dispositional loneliness measure and participated in an 8-day ecological momentary assessment paired with accelerometry. Loneliness was assessed three times daily via self-report, with partners providing end-of-day ratings of participants’ loneliness. Physical activity indices (e.g. active time) were derived for the full 8-day period, for each day, and for 20–60-minute windows before and after each momentary prompt. Dispositional loneliness was unrelated to mean-level physical activity. At the day-level, no accelerometer-based measures were associated with partner-rated evening loneliness. At the momentary-level, physical activity before each prompt was unrelated to self-reported loneliness, and momentary loneliness did not predict later activity. Overall, loneliness was unrelated to physical activity across between-person, daily, and momentary analyses. Results may reflect a true null effect or sample characteristics.

Personal beliefs and perceptions are a psychological resource for handling stress (Park et al., 2018). Stress mindset, or the extent to which stress is believed to have debilitating or enhancing co...

Background and Objectives: Loneliness is linked to poor cognition and dementia risk. Yet, little is known about how loneliness relates to perceptions of cognitive functioning in daily life, particularly among individuals at-risk for dementia. We examined within-person and between-person associations between daily loneliness and subjective cognition and tested moderation by cognitive status, dispositional loneliness, and sociodemographic characteristics.Research Design and Methods: Data were from 2,540 adults aged 40 years and older (Mage= 63; 59.6% female; 32.7% with subjective cognitive decline [SCD]; 7.3% with cognitive impairment, no dementia [CIND]), who completed 8 daily assessments of loneliness, subjective cognitive functioning, forgetting, and forgetting-related irritation and interference.Results: Participants with higher mean daily loneliness reported worse cognitive functioning and greater odds of forgetting over the study period. On days when participants felt lonelier than their average, they reported poorer cognition. Daily loneliness was not associated with forgetting on a given day but was associated with greater forgetting-related irritation and interference. While participants with SCD or CIND reported higher daily loneliness, associations did not differ by cognitive status, dispositional loneliness, or socio-demographic factors. There was limited evidence of lagged associations.Discussion and Implications: Loneliness was negatively associated with subjective cognition between persons and within persons. Associations were consistent across normal cognition, SCD, and CIND, suggesting loneliness may be relevant to subjective cognition regardless of clinical stage. The higher daily loneliness among SCD and CIND participants underscores the need to address psychosocial well-being in efforts to promote cognitive health and support dementia prevention strategies.

Background: Purpose in life is consistently associated with better health outcomes, including lower risk of earlier mortality. We report an updated meta-analysis of the published literature, combined with analysis of individual-participant data, to address replicability, generalizability, and potential mechanisms of the association between purpose in life and risk of mortality. Methods: A random-effects meta-analysis of individual-participant data from ongoing longitudinal studies ( k = 8) combined with findings from a systematic review of the published literature ( k = 17 samples from 14 publications). Across the 25 samples, there were 488,765 participants, 48,928 deaths, and up to 32 years of follow-up. Results: Purpose in life was associated with a ~ 30% lower risk of earlier mortality (meta-analytic HR = .76 [1/.76 = 1.32], 95% CI = .70, .83). The association was apparent across sociodemographic groups, with some small differences in magnitude by age, race, and education. The association was attenuated but persisted, controlling for behavioral and clinical risk factors for mortality (meta-analytic HR = .85, 95% CI = .82, .89), or depression (meta-analytic HR = .91, 95% CI = .88, .94). Conclusions: A meta-analysis of 25 samples from the United States, Europe, and Asia indicated that purpose in life has a consistent association with lower risk of mortality. The association is due in part but not completely to behavioral, clinical, and psychological risk factors for earlier mortality.

Objectives: Purpose in life is associated with better cognition in middle and older adulthood. Less is known about how purpose supports cognitive function in moments throughout the day in daily life.Methods: Participants in the Purpose and Engagement in Everyday Life (PEEL) study (N=2577; Meanage=63.51 [SD=11.24], 60% female, 27% Black) completed an ecological momentary assessment protocol in which they rated their momentary purpose, completed three cognitive tasks, and reported on three cognitive lapses three times a day for eight days. Participants also rated their momentary meaning in life, happiness, and sadness. Results: Multilevel modeling of nearly 48,000 assessments indicated that in moments participants felt more purposeful than their own average, they performed faster on momentary measures of attention (b=-.06, SE=.01, p<.001) and executive function (b=-.11, SE=.04, p=.011) but not visual memory. Momentary meaning was associated with attention (b=-.06, SE=.02, p<.001) but not executive function or visual memory. Momentary happiness and sadness were largely unrelated to momentary cognitive performance. Momentary purpose was associated with fewer lapses in concentration (OR=.94, 95% CI=.92, .96, p<.001) and unrelated to memory lapses; the same pattern emerged for meaning, happiness, and sadness (reverse direction). The associations between purpose and momentary cognition were generally similar across age, sex, race, ethnicity, and education.Discussion: Higher purpose relative to one’s average supports better cognitive performance in daily life. These cognitive benefits do not extend to hedonic well-being. If supported by experimental evidence, purpose in life may be a target of intervention to improve cognitive function in daily life.