Purposeful adults may experience greater cognitive resilience because sense of purpose may help buffer against the effects of depressive symptoms and loneliness. We also evaluated whether these associations differed by race.

This study uses a wave of self-report data from the SPAN study of psychosocial aging.

Participants come from a representative sample of older adults in St. Louis.

Participants (N = 595) ages range from 65 to 78 (M age = 71.46), with 18.3% of participants identifying as Black/African-American.

Sense of purpose was assessed with the Life Engagement Test, depressive symptoms with the Beck Depression Inventory-II, loneliness with the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and subjective cognitive decline with the AD-8.

Correlational analyses supported predictions that sense of purpose was negatively related to subjective cognitive decline, whereas depressive symptoms and loneliness were positively related (|r|s > .30, ps < .001). For loneliness, but not depression, this association was moderated by sense of purpose (b = −0.43, p < .001). A relatively high sense of purpose attenuated associations between loneliness and subjective cognitive decline. A three-way race × purpose × loneliness interaction (b = −0.25, p = .021) revealed that the buffering effects of sense of purpose on subjective cognitive decline were stronger for Black adults.

This study provided partial support for the buffering hypothesis, showing that sense of purpose may help mitigate the cognitive decrements associated with loneliness. Future research needs to consider how purpose-promoting programs may support healthy cognitive aging, particularly among Black older adults and those who experience greater social isolation.

有目的的成年人可能会体验到更大的认知弹性，因为目的感可能有助于缓解抑郁症状和孤独感的影响。我们还评估了这些关联是否因种族而异。

本研究使用了 SPAN 社会心理老化研究中的一波自我报告数据。

参与者来自圣路易斯老年人的代表性样本。

参与者 ( N = 595) 年龄从 65 岁到 78 岁不等（M 年龄= 71.46），其中 18.3% 的参与者被认定为黑人/非裔美国人。

使用生活参与测试评估目的感，使用贝克抑郁量表-II 评估抑郁症状，使用加州大学洛杉矶分校孤独量表评估孤独感，使用 AD-8 评估主观认知能力下降。

相关分析支持这样的预测，即目标感与主观认知能力下降呈负相关，而抑郁症状和孤独感呈正相关 (| r |s > .30, p s < .001)。对于孤独而非抑郁，这种关联受到目的感的调节 ( b = −0.43, p < .001)。相对较高的目标感减弱了孤独感与主观认知能力下降之间的联系。三向种族 × 目的 × 孤独互动 ( b = −0.25, p = .021) 表明，对于黑人成年人来说，目的感对主观认知衰退的缓冲作用更强。

这项研究为缓冲假设提供了部分支持，表明目的感可能有助于减轻与孤独相关的认知衰退。未来的研究需要考虑目标促进计划如何支持健康的认知老龄化，特别是在黑人老年人和那些经历更严重的社会孤立的人中。