ArticleThe American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry2023
Important Correlates of Purpose in Life in a Diverse Population-Based Cohort: A Machine Learning Approach.
Article in The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 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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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- What Makes a Neighborhood? Associations Between Behavioral and Psychosocial Factors and Perceptions of Neighborhood Environments Among Community-Dwelling Older Black and Latino Adults.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Identifying childhood correlates of adult purpose and meaning across 22 countries (Global Flourishing Study).Npj mental health research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundPurpose-in-life (PiL) refers to the tendency to derive meaning and purpose from daily life experiences. Individuals with higher PiL were more likely to have better physical, mental, and cognitive health in prospective studies. Here, we aimed to identify important correlates of PiL among people of diverse backgrounds.
methodsParticipants were recruited by the population-based Health and Retirement Study and provided information on 34 different sociodemographic and psychosocial factors through psychometrically validated measures. To identify important correlates of PiL, we employed regularized regression implemented by Elastic Net on the entire cohort as well as among self-identified black participants only and white participants only, respectively.
resultsA total of 6,620 participants were included in this study, among whom 913 were black and 5,707 were white. We identified 12 and 23 important sociodemographic and psychosocial correlates of PiL among black and white participants, respectively. Notably, all the 12 correlates in black participants were also correlates among white participants. Interestingly, when we examined both black and white participants together, being black was associated with having higher PiL. The correlates with the largest effect on PiL that were shared among black and white participants were hopelessness, perceived constraint on personal control, and self-mastery.
conclusionSeveral sociodemographic and psychosocial factors most strongly associated with PiL were shared among black and white participants. Future studies should investigate whether interventions targeting correlates of PiL can lead to higher sense of life purpose in participants of diverse backgrounds.
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