Abstract
People with a greater sense of purpose in life may be more likely to engage in physical activity. At the same time, physical activity can contribute to a sense of purpose in life. The present research tests these hypotheses using a cross-lagged panel model in a nationally representative, longitudinal panel of American adults (N = 14,159, Mage = 68). An increase in sense of purpose in life was associated with higher physical activity four years later, above and beyond past activity levels. Physical activity was positively associated with future levels of sense of purpose in life, controlling for prior levels of purpose in life. Results held in a second national panel from the US with a nine-year follow-up (N = 4,041, Mage = 56). The findings demonstrate a bidirectional relationship between sense of purpose in life and physical activity in large samples of middle-aged and older adults tracked over time.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
All data is publicly available. See http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACDA/ to access the data from Midlife in the US, and see http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu to access the data Health and Retirement Study.
Code availability
The code is not publicly available.
Notes
Only one study, in which older women with pain were over-sampled, did not find a significant correlation between purpose in life and physical activity (Salt et al., 2017).
We did not rely on traditional chi2 statistics (χ2) since these are most often uninformative when the sample size is large as they easily lead to the rejection of the null hypothesis (Kelloway, 1995).
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191
Bauman, A. E., Reis, R. S., Sallis, J. F., Wells, J. C., Loos, R. J., Martin, B. W., & Group LPASW. (2012). Correlates of physical activity: Why are some people physically active and others not? The Lancet, 380, 258–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60735-1
Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Brown, G., & Steer, R. A. (1988). An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: Psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 893–897. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.56.6.893
Beck, F., Gillison, F., & Standage, M. (2010). A theoretical investigation of the development of physical activity habits in retirement. British Journal of Health Psychology, 15(3), 663–679. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910709X479096
Boehm, J. K., Soo, J., Zevon, E. S., Chen, Y., Kim, E. S., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2018). Longitudinal associations between psychological well-being and the consumption of fruits and vegetables. Health Psychology, 37, 959–967. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000643
Bundick, M. J. (2011). The benefits of reflecting on and discussing purpose in life in emerging adulthood. New Directions for Youth Development, 89, 103. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.430
Chen, Y., Kim, E. S., Shields, A. E., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2020). Antecedents of purpose in life: Evidence from a lagged exposure-wide analysis. Cogent Psychology, 7(1), 1825043. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2020.1825043
Cotter, K. A., & Lachman, M. E. (2010). No strain, no gain: Psycho-social predictors of physical activity across the adult lifespan. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 7, 584–594. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.7.5.584
Enders, C. K., & Bandalos, D. L. (2001). The relative performance of full information maximum likelihood estimation for missing data in structural equation models. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 8, 430–457. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0803_5
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (2005). Theory-based behavior change interventions: Comments on hobbis and sutton. Journal of Health Psychology, 10, 27–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105305048552
Forest, J., Mageau, G. A., Crevier-Braud, L., Bergeron, É., Dubreuil, P., & Lavigne, G. L. (2012). Harmonious passion as an explanation of the relation between signature strengths’ use and well-being at work: Test of an intervention program. Human Relations, 65, 1233–1252. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726711433134
Frankl, V. E. (1984). Man’s search for meaning. . Simon and Schuster.
Friedman, E. M., Ruini, C., Foy, R., Jaros, L., Sampson, H., & Ryff, C. D. (2017). Lighten UP! A community-based group intervention to promote psychological well-being in older adults. Aging & Mental Health, 21, 199–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2015.1093605
Friedman, E. M., & Ryff, C. D. (2012). Living well with medical comorbidities: A biopsychosocial perspective. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 67(5), 535–544. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbr152.
Health and Retirement Study. (2006). Public use dataset produced and distributed by the University of Michigan with funding from the National Institute on Aging (grant number NIA U01AG009740). Ann Arbor, MI.
Hill, P. L., Edmonds, G. W., & Hampson, S. E. (2017). A purposeful lifestyle is a healthful lifestyle: Linking sense of purpose to self-rated health through multiple health behaviors. Journal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105317708251
Hill, P. L., & Turiano, N. A. (2014). Purpose in life as a predictor of mortality across adulthood. Psychological Science, 25, 1482–1486. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614531799
Hill, P. L., & Weston, S. J. (2017). Evaluating eight-year trajectories for sense of purpose in the health and retirement study. Aging & Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2017.1399344
Holahan, C. K., Holahan, C. J., & Suzuki, R. (2008). Purposiveness, physical activity, and perceived health in cardiac patients. Disability and Rehabilitation, 30, 1772–1778. https://doi.org/10.1080/10428190701661508
Holahan, C. K., Holahan, C. J., Velasquez, K. E., Jung, S., North, R. J., & Pahl, S. A. (2011). Purposiveness and leisure-time physical activity in women in early midlife. Women & Health, 51, 661–675. https://doi.org/10.1080/03630242.2011.617811
Holahan, C. K., & Suzuki, R. (2006). Motivational factors in health promoting behavior in later aging. Activities, Adaptation & Aging, 30, 47–60. https://doi.org/10.1300/J016v30n01_03
Hooker, S. A., & Masters, K. S. (2016). Purpose in life is associated with physical activity measured by accelerometer. Journal of Health Psychology, 21, 962–971. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105314542822
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
Jelicić, H., Phelps, E., & Lerner, R. M. (2009). Use of missing data methods in longitudinal studies: The persistence of bad practices in developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 45, 1195–1199. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015665
Jenkins, K., Ofstedal, M., Weir, D., & Weir, D. (2008). Documentation of Health Behaviors and Risk Factors Measured in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS/AHEAD). Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. Retrieved Jan 13, 2021 https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/sites/default/files/biblio/dr-010.pdf
Kahneman, D., Diener, E., & Schwarz, N. (1999). Well-Being: Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. . Russell Sage Foundation.
Kämpfen, F., & Maurer, J. (2016). Time to burn (calories)? The impact of retirement on physical activity among mature Americans. Journal of Health Economics, 45, 91–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.12.001
Kelloway, E. K. (1995). Structural equation modelling in perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 16, 215–224. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030160304
Kim, E. S., Kubzansky, L. D., Soo, J., & Boehm, J. K. (2017). Maintaining healthy behavior: A prospective study of psychological well-being and physical activity. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 51, 337–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-016-9856-y
Kim, E. S., Shiba, K., Boehm, J. K., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2020). Sense of purpose in life and five health behaviors in older adults. Preventive Medicine, 139, 106172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106172
Kim, E. S., Strecher, V. J., & Ryff, C. D. (2014). Purpose in life and use of preventive health care services. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 16331–16336. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1414826111
Kim, E. S., Sun, J. K., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2013). Purpose in life and reduced incidence of stroke in older adults: “The health and retirement study.” Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 74, 427–432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2013.01.013
Kline, R. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Kosteli, M.-C., Williams, S. E., & Cumming, J. (2016). Investigating the psychosocial determinants of physical activity in older adults: A qualitative approach. Psychology & Health, 31(6), 730–749. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2016.1143943
Kubzansky, L. D., Huffman, J. C., Boehm, J. K., Hernandez, R., Kim, E. S., Koga, H. K., Feig, E. H., Lloyd-Jones, D. M., Seligman, M. E. P., & Labarthe, D. R. (2018). Positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular disease | Elsevier enhanced reader. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 72, 1382–1396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2018.07.042
Lear, S. A., Hu, W., Rangarajan, S., Gasevic, D., Leong, D., Iqbal, R., Casanova, A., Swaminathan, S., Anjana, R. M., Kumar, R., Rosengren, A., Wei, L., Yang, W., Chuangshi, W., Huaxing, L., Nair, S., Diaz, R., Swidon, H., Gupta, R., & Yusuf, S. (2017). The effect of physical activity on mortality and cardiovascular disease in 130 000 people from 17 high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries: The PURE study. The Lancet, 390, 2643–2654. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31634-3
Mavaddat, N., Kinmonth, A. L., Sanderson, S., Surtees, P., Bingham, S., & Khaw, K. T. (2011). What determines self-rated health (SRH)? A cross-sectional study of SF-36 health domains in the EPIC-Norfolk cohort. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 65, 800–806. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2009.090845
McDowell, C. P., Dishman, R. K., Gordon, B. R., & Herring, M. P. (2019). Physical activity and anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 57, 545–556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2019.05.012
Medina, L., Sabo, S., & Vespa, J. (2020). Living Longer: Historical and Projected Life Expectancy in the United States, 1960 to 2060. Current Population Reports, P25–1145, US Census Bureau. Retrieved Jan 13 2021, from, https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1145.pdf
Morgan, G. S., Willmott, M., Ben-Shlomo, Y., Haase, A. M., & Campbell, R. M. (2019). A life fulfilled: Positively influencing physical activity in older adults—a systematic review and meta-ethnography. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 362. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6624-5
Pinquart, M. (2001). Correlates of subjective health in older adults: A meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 16, 414–426. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.16.3.414
Radler, B. T. (2014). The Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) series: A national longitudinal study of health and well-being. Open Health Data. https://doi.org/10.5334/ohd.ai
Radler, B. T., & Ryff, C. D. (2010). Who participates? Accounting for longitudinal retention in the MIDUS national study of health and well-being. Journal of Aging and Health, 22, 307–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264309358617
Rhodes, R. E., & de Bruijn, G.-J. (2013). How big is the physical activity intention-behaviour gap? A meta-analysis using the action control framework. British Journal of Health Psychology, 18, 296–309. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12032
Rhodes, R. E., Plotnikoff, R. C., & Courneya, K. S. (2008). Predicting the physical activity intention-behavior profiles of adopters and maintainers using three social cognition models. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 36, 244–252. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-008-9071-6
Rhodes, R. E., Janssen, I., Bredin, S. S. D., Warburton, D. E. R., & Bauman, A. (2017). Physical activity: Health impact, prevalence, correlates and interventions. Psychology & Health, 32, 942–975. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2017.1325486
Robinson, S. A., Bisson, A. N., Hughes, M. L., Ebert, J., & Lachman, M. E. (2019). Time for change: Using implementation intentions to promote physical activity in a randomised pilot trial. Psychology & Health, 34, 232–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2018.1539487
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069.
Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.4.719
Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. (1998). The contours of positive human health. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0901_1
Sallis, J. F., Bull, F., Guthold, R., Heath, G. W., Inoue, S., Kelly, P., Oyeyemi, A. L., Perez, L. G., Richards, J., & Hallal, P. C. (2016). Progress in physical activity over the Olympic quadrennium. The Lancet, 388, 1325–1336. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30581-5
Schuch, F. B., Vancampfort, D., Firth, J., Rosenbaum, S., Ward, P. B., Silva, E. S., Hallgren, M., Ponce De Leon, A., Dunn, A. L., Deslandes, A. C., Fleck, M. P., Carvalho, A. F., & Stubbs, B. (2018). Physical activity and incident depression: A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. American Journal of Psychiatry, 175, 631–648. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.17111194
Sniehotta, F. F., Schwarzer, R., Scholz, U., & Schüz, B. (2005). Action planning and coping planning for long-term lifestyle change: Theory and assessment. European Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 565–576. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.258
Sonnega, A., Faul, J. D., Ofstedal, M. B., Langa, K. M., Phillips, J. W., & Weir, D. R. (2014). Cohort profile: The health and retirement study (HRS). International Journal of Epidemiology, 43, 576–585. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyu067
Springer, K. W., Pudrovska, T., & Hauser, R. M. (2011). Does psychological well-being change with age?: Longitudinal tests of age variations and further exploration of the multidimensionality of Ryff’s model of psychological well-being. Social Science Research, 40, 392–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2010.05.008
Troiano, R. P., Berrigan, D., Dodd, K. W., MâSse, L. C., Tilert, T., & Mcdowell, M. (2008). Physical activity in the United States measured by accelerometer. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 40, 181–188. https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0b013e31815a51b3
US Department of Health and Human Services. 2018. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition. Retrieved Jan 13, 2021 https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf
VanderWeele, T. J., Jackson, J. W., & Li, S. (2016). Causal inference and longitudinal data: A case study of religion and mental health. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 51, 1457–1466. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-016-1281-9
Wang, P. S., Berglund, P., & Kessler, R. C. (2000). Recent care of common mental disorders in the United States. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 15, 284–292. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2000.9908044.x
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063
Windsor, T. D., Curtis, R. G., & Luszcz, M. A. (2015). Sense of purpose as a psychological resource for aging well. Developmental Psychology, 51, 975–986. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000023
Wooldridge, J. M. (2010). Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. MIT press.
Zhang, Z., & Chen, W. (2019). A systematic review of the relationship between physical activity and happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20, 1305–1322. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9976-0
Funding
Ayse Yemiscigil and Ivo Vlaev declare no funding.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Ayse Yemiscigil contributed to conceptual development, formal analysis and writing. Ivo Vlaev provided critical feedback on the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Ayse Yemiscigil and Ivo Vlaev declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Human and animal rights and Informed consent
This research uses data from the Health and Retirement Study and Midlife in the US. All data is publicly available and de-identified and therefore has been exempt from review. The informed consent processes for the respondents in these datasets can be found in the studies’ respective websites: http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu for the Health and Retirement Study and http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACDA/ for the Midlife in the US.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yemiscigil, A., Vlaev, I. The bidirectional relationship between sense of purpose in life and physical activity: a longitudinal study. J Behav Med 44, 715–725 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-021-00220-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-021-00220-2