Purpose matters

New Year's resolutions, like drinking more water or getting more exercise, aren't the only ways to bolster health and well-being. University of Delaware Assistant Professor Heather Farmer has found that a strong sense of purpose in life - the ability to find meaning and direction in your life - significantly protects health and well-being over time, especially as you age. It even provides protection against stress.

Research from Farmer and her colleagues found that a strong purpose in life can temper potential changes in cognition associated with stressful experiences, like frequent discrimination. Using a national sample of more than 22,000 adults aged 51 and older, she found that people with a stronger sense of purpose in life showed significantly fewer cognitive changes after experiencing discrimination than those without a strong sense of meaning or direction in their lives.

"Stress is a major part of life and decades of research shows that it can impact health," said Farmer, who studies how biological, psychological and social processes affect adult health outcomes in the College of Education and Human Development's (CEHD) Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. "This study shows that stress exposure isn't inherently harmful for everyone across the board. People may draw on psychosocial resources, like purpose in life, to help them respond to stress, and this can actually be quite beneficial for health in the short- and long-term. "

Purpose in life and wellness

Farmer knew that purpose in life can lower the risk of a number of adverse health outcomes for older adults, especially cardiovascular issues, sleep-related issues and early mortality. Research has also found that a strong purpose in life helps people prioritize their overall health through exercise and preventive care.

Farmer wondered if purpose in life could also help people buffer the cognitive impacts associated with discrimination, a chronic source of stress that can also impact health through the cardiovascular, immune and nervous systems.

"There is a lot of research showing that discrimination is harmful for nearly every aspect of physical and psychological health," Farmer said. "In my lab, we recognize that older adults have a lifetime's worth of experience and knowledge that may have led to a dynamic repertoire of coping strategies. As a result, we pursued this work to understand the strengths that older people possess that could offer them protection from discrimination."

Purpose in life and resilience

Using data from the nationally-representative Health and Retirement Study, Farmer and her colleagues analyzed the relationship between purpose in life, discrimination and cognitive change across study participants from 2006 to 2020. Participants were asked to agree or disagree with statements like "I enjoy making plans for the future" (which measured their sense of purpose in life) and indicate how often they experienced discrimination through statements like "You are treated with less courtesy or respect than other people."

Farmer found that participants with a stronger sense of purpose experienced better overall cognition, which included processing speed, episodic memory and executive functioning. As expected, she also found that people who experienced frequent discrimination experienced worse cognitive outcomes.

Importantly, Farmer's study also shows that purpose in life significantly influenced the relationship between discrimination and cognition. Among those with the highest levels of purpose, cognitive functioning remained nearly unchanged, even after reporting nearly daily discrimination. By contrast, those with a lower sense of purpose had especially poor cognition when they reported frequent discrimination.

"It's amazing that among people with the highest levels of purpose in life, there was virtually no association between discrimination and cognition," Farmer said. "Purpose matters, and it likely shapes how people appraise and respond to stressors. For example, people with a stronger sense of purpose in life tend to have better emotion regulation and use positive coping strategies to deal with ongoing stress, and it makes a difference for their health and well-being."

Enhancing purpose in life

Farmer's research shows that a strong purpose in life is an especially valuable psychological resource for those experiencing discrimination. Many health and social services are now focusing on ways to enhance purpose in life among older adults. In fact, UD's new master's of social work (MSW) program is one example.

"Our MSW program is helping reinforce social work professionals' ability to understand and assist older adults with healthy aging by building on excellent research like that of Dr. Farmer, which captures critical elements for promoting older adult well-being," said Raphael Travis, CEHD professor and director of the MSW program. "Through our coursework and practicum experiences, students are learning how to promote positive identity, purpose and agency."

Some of these strategies include spending more time with friends, volunteering, participating in leisure activities and engaging in physical activity.

"Research has shown that participation in leisure activities is associated with more purpose in life and that those who continued participating in these activities also experienced fewer declines in their purpose over an eight-year span," Farmer said. "Similarly, spending more time with friends, volunteering and physical activity have all been shown to predict or lead to a greater purpose in life."

To learn more about CEHD research on the social determinants of health, visit its research webpage.