Longitudinal Associations Between Contact Frequency with Friends and with Family, Activity Engagement, and Cognitive Functioning.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Social engagement may be an important protective resource for cognitive aging. Some evidence suggests that time spent with friends may be more beneficial for cognition than time spent with family. Because maintaining friendships has been demonstrated to require more active maintenance and engagement in shared activities, activity engagement may be one underlying pathway that explains the distinct associations between contact frequency with friends versus family and cognition.

Methods

Using two waves of data from the national survey of Midlife in the United States (n = 3707, Mage = 55.80, 51% female at baseline), we examined longitudinal associations between contact frequency with friends and family, activity engagement (cognitive and physical activities), and cogn

SUBMITTER: Sharifian N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7483134 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature