TY - JOUR
T1 - Purposeful and purposeless aging
T2 - Structural issues for sense of purpose and their implications for predicting life outcomes.
AU - Pfund, G.N.
AU - Olaru, G.
AU - Allemand, M.
AU - Hill, P.L.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Despite the value of sense of purpose during older adulthood, this construct often declines with age. With some older adults reconsidering the relevance of purpose later in life, the measurement of purpose may suffer from variance issues with age. The current study investigated whether sense of purpose functions similarly across ages and evaluated if the predictive power of purpose on mental, physical, cognitive, and financial outcomes changes when accounting for a less age-affected measurement structure. Utilizing data from two nationwide panel studies (Health and Retirement Study: n = 14,481; Midlife in the United States: n = 4,030), the current study conducted local structural equation modeling and found two factors for the positively and negatively valenced purpose items in the Purpose in Life subscale (Ryff, 1989), deemed the purposeful and purposeless factor. These factors become less associated with each other at higher ages. When reproducing past findings with this two-factor structure, the current study found that the purposeful and purposeless factors predicted these outcomes in the same direction as would be suggested by past research, but the magnitude of these effects differed for some outcomes. The discussion focuses on the implications of what this means for our understanding of sense of purpose across the lifespan.
AB - Despite the value of sense of purpose during older adulthood, this construct often declines with age. With some older adults reconsidering the relevance of purpose later in life, the measurement of purpose may suffer from variance issues with age. The current study investigated whether sense of purpose functions similarly across ages and evaluated if the predictive power of purpose on mental, physical, cognitive, and financial outcomes changes when accounting for a less age-affected measurement structure. Utilizing data from two nationwide panel studies (Health and Retirement Study: n = 14,481; Midlife in the United States: n = 4,030), the current study conducted local structural equation modeling and found two factors for the positively and negatively valenced purpose items in the Purpose in Life subscale (Ryff, 1989), deemed the purposeful and purposeless factor. These factors become less associated with each other at higher ages. When reproducing past findings with this two-factor structure, the current study found that the purposeful and purposeless factors predicted these outcomes in the same direction as would be suggested by past research, but the magnitude of these effects differed for some outcomes. The discussion focuses on the implications of what this means for our understanding of sense of purpose across the lifespan.
KW - age-related psychometrics
KW - local structural equation modeling
KW - purpose in life
KW - sense of purpose
KW - successful aging
KW - Aging/psychology
KW - United States
KW - Humans
KW - Retirement/psychology
KW - Aged
KW - Longevity
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/1987c511-b17b-30e0-95bb-803a62374722/
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85182588080&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/dev0001633
DO - 10.1037/dev0001633
M3 - Article
C2 - 37768600
SN - 0012-1649
VL - 60
SP - 75
EP - 93
JO - Developmental Psychology
JF - Developmental Psychology
IS - 1
ER -