Feeling that
you have a sense of purpose in life may help you live longer, no matter what
your age, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal
of the Association for Psychological Science.
The research
has clear implications for promoting positive aging and adult development, says
lead researcher Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada:
“Our
findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting
overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live
longer, regardless of when you find your purpose,” says Hill. “So the earlier
someone comes to a direction for life, the earlier these protective effects may
be able to occur.”
This is an
image of a sunrise over a road in the countryside.Previous studies have
suggested that finding a purpose in life lowers risk of mortality above and
beyond other factors that are known to predict longevity.
But, Hill
points out, almost no research examined whether the benefits of purpose vary
over time, such as across different developmental periods or after important
life transitions.
Hill and
colleague Nicholas Turiano of the University of Rochester Medical Center
decided to explore this question, taking advantage of the nationally
representative data available from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS)
study.
The
researchers looked at data from over 6000 participants, focusing on their
self-reported purpose in life (e.g., “Some people wander aimlessly through
life, but I am not one of them”) and other psychosocial variables that gauged
their positive relations with others and their experience of positive and
negative emotions.
Over the
14-year follow-up period represented in the MIDUS data, 569 of the participants
had died (about 9% of the sample). Those who had died had reported lower
purpose in life and fewer positive relations than did survivors.
Greater
purpose in life consistently predicted lower mortality risk across the
lifespan, showing the same benefit for younger, middle-aged, and older
participants across the follow-up period.
This
consistency came as a surprise to the researchers:
“There are a
lot of reasons to believe that being purposeful might help protect older adults
more so than younger ones,” says Hill. “For instance, adults might need a sense
of direction more, after they have left the workplace and lost that source for
organizing their daily events. In addition, older adults are more likely to
face mortality risks than younger adults.”
“To show
that purpose predicts longer lives for younger and older adults alike is pretty
interesting, and underscores the power of the construct,” he explains.
Purpose had
similar benefits for adults regardless of retirement status, a known mortality
risk factor. And the longevity benefits of purpose in life held even after
other indicators of psychological well-being, such as positive relations and
positive emotions, were taken into account.
“These
findings suggest that there’s something unique about finding a purpose that
seems to be leading to greater longevity,” says Hill.
The
researchers are currently investigating whether having a purpose might lead
people to adopt healthier lifestyles, thereby boosting longevity.
Hill and
Turiano are also interested in examining whether their findings hold for
outcomes other than mortality.
“In so
doing, we can better understand the value of finding a purpose throughout the
lifespan, and whether it provides different benefits for different people,”
Hill concludes.
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