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The lack of disease-modifying treatments for dementia underscores the importance of prevention for alleviating this growing public health crisis. Psychosocial factors have been shown to influence cognitive aging trajectories. However, most studies have focused on risk rather than resilience. This symposium brings together four papers that use data from major longitudinal studies of cognitive aging to explore psychosocial resources that could be leveraged to optimize cognitive aging. Each presentation focuses on a different aspect of psychosocial functioning in large, racially and ethnically diverse cohorts of older adults. The symposium takes a life course perspective, as presentations consider how psychosocial resources at different stages of development predict cognitive aging. First, Dr. Laura Zahodne demonstrates how higher quality social support during childhood leads to healthier later-life cognitive trajectories by shaping socioeconomic achievements as well as physical and mental health during adulthood. Dr. Neika Sharifian examines how objective characteristics of social networks (i.e., size, proportion family) interact to predict older adults’ functioning across different domains of cognition. Dr. Robert Turner examines whether personal control can buffer the negative cognitive impact of psychosocial stressors that have accumulated across the life course among men transitioning from mid-life to older adulthood. Jasmine Manalel demonstrates how cognitive aging trajectories differ between individuals who interact only with close social partners versus individuals who cultivate broader social ties through participation in social clubs and prosocial, community-based activities. Finally, Dr. Margie Lachman (discussant) will offer perspectives on mechanisms underlying connections between psychosocial histories and cognitive functioning for older adults.
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