ArticleJournal of psychosomatic research2021
Maintaining sense of purpose in midlife predicts better physical health.
Article in Journal of psychosomatic research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neighborhood opportunity and cellular senescence in a national sample of U.S. adults.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2026Article
- Childhood SES gradients in adult functional limitations: Does state-level macro-economic context matter?Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- Sustained Purpose in Life is Associated With Slower Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Longitudinal Analysis With a Diverse National Sample.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- The psychosocial anti-inflammatories: Sense of control, purpose in life, and social support in relation to inflammation, functional health and chronic conditions in adulthood.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2024Article
- Contributing to 'a sense of purpose' - Evaluating consumer recovery progress after attending a therapeutic-recreation intervention programme: A quantitative analysis.The International journal of social psychiatry · 2024Article
- The shifts in intergenerational relations in Cameroon and their potential impact on the health of older adults.BMJ global health · 2024Article
- Purposeful and purposeless aging: Structural issues for sense of purpose and their implications for predicting life outcomes.Developmental psychology · 2024Article
- Important Correlates of Purpose in Life in a Diverse Population-Based Cohort: A Machine Learning Approach.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2023Article
- Self-Rated Health and Mortality: Moderation by Purpose in Life.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- What makes life purposeful? Identifying the antecedents of a sense of purpose in life using a lagged exposure-wide approach.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- Sense of Purpose in Life and Subsequent Physical, Behavioral, and Psychosocial Health: An Outcome-Wide Approach.American journal of health promotion : AJHP · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveHaving a sense of purpose in life is fundamental to psychological and physical well-being. Despite the benefits of purpose, it may be difficult to hold onto purpose as people age. The present research addressed four aims: (1) to estimate average change in sense of purpose during midlife; (2) to test associations between purpose levels and later physical health; (3) to test associations between purpose change and later physical health; (4) to examine the cross-cultural generalizability of findings.
methodsWe used reliable change indices to estimate change in sense of purpose during midlife in three prospective cohorts: one comprised predominately of White participants in the U.S. (N = 2692), a second predominately of African American participants in the U.S. (N = 248), and a third of Japanese participants in Tokyo (N = 644). Next, we used linear regression to examine associations between purpose levels and purpose change and later self-reported general health and chronic health conditions.
resultsAt the group level, purpose declined slightly across time (Cohen's ds = -0.08 to -0.17). At the individual level, 10-14% of participants reliably decreased in purpose, whereas only 6-8% of participants reliably increased in purpose. Consistent with our preregistered hypotheses, higher purpose levels predicted better health in the two larger samples (βs = 0.10-0.18, small effects) and more positive purpose change predicted better health in all three samples (βs = 0.08--0.22., small to medium effects).
conclusionTogether, these findings suggest that both having a sense of purpose and holding onto it may be important for physical health in middle to older adulthood.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.