Longitudinal Within-Person Associations Between Quality of Social Relations, Structure of Social Relations, and Cognitive Functioning in Older Age

Abstract

Across the life span, an individual is typically surrounded by a circle of other people, such as spouse, family, and friends. This circle is called a convoy, meaning a protective escort (Antonucci et al., 2014). Maintaining convoys of social relations has been shown to protect against cognitive decline in older age (Evans et al., 2019; Kelly et al., 2017; Kuiper et al., 2015). Most studies thus far have examined unidirectional effects of social relations on cognitive functioning, thereby neglecting the potential reversed directional effects of cognitive functioning on social relations. Life-span developmental theory conceptualizes development as an adaptive process of coordinating, integrating, and balancing gains and losses of internal and external resources (Baltes et al., 1999, 2007). That is, while environment shapes human development, individuals also shape their own environment, selecting themselves into and out of environments (Wahl & Gerstorf, 2018). If cognitive aging is indeed an ongoing adaptive process, social relations and cognitive functioning should exhibit reciprocal relations over time. The directional effect of cognitive functioning on social relations can reflect how individuals adaptively change their social relations in response to their own cognitive functioning.