‘Purpose in Life’ as a psychosocial resource in healthy aging: an examination of cortisol baseline levels and response to the Trier Social Stress Test

Abstract

‘Purpose in Life’ (Purpose) is associated with healthy aging, but it is unknown whether this association is causal. Conceptualizing Purpose as a form of psychosocial resource, one mechanism promoting health could be the regulation of stress hormones. To test this hypothesis, we recruited 44 older community-dwelling adults to examine the association between Purpose and cortisol at baseline, in response to, and recovery from, an acute social laboratory stressor. Purpose did not predict cortisol baseline or reactivity, but did predict a faster recovery to pre-stress baseline levels. The health benefits of Purpose in aging may therefore reflect the combination of a normal stress response, which serves an adaptive benefit of allostasis, with an accelerated stress recovery, which reduces the burden of allostatic load. This model should be tested in future studies using larger samples, multiple related constructs, and longitudinal designs that include participants’ health records.