As societies age, it’s vital that we’re able to do so in a healthy way. Research from Washington University in St. Louis highlights how beneficial social activity is to healthy aging as these were linked with higher levels of purposefulness.

The researchers studied around 100 older adults with an average age of 71. The volunteers were quizzed three times per day about the level and quality of social interactions they’d enjoyed that day, with the evening interaction involving them rating their sense of purpose that day.

Purposeful life

The results show that the more positive interactions people had during the day, the more likely they were to feel that the day had been purposeful. Indeed, this was found to be a more reliable indicator of one’s sense of purpose than things such as relationship status or employment. The researchers believe that the findings demonstrate how dynamic our sense of purpose tends to be.

“Most research on sense of purpose is focused on big-picture orientation of someone being purposeful versus someone being not purposeful,” they say.

The reality, however, seems to be rather more dynamic, although the results do suggest that some participants were generally more purposeful than others.

“We found purpose can change from day to day. Everyone was experiencing fluctuations relative to their own averages,” the authors explain.

Meaning in retirement

What’s more, this association was particularly strong in retired people, with the quality of interactions with others intensely linked to our overall sense of meaning and purpose.

The researchers do provide a couple of caveats, however, the first of which was that the data was collected in Switzerland, so may have geographic limitations. The participants were also in good health, which is not something that all older people can say.

Generally, however, they are confident that the notion of purpose underpinning our sense of wellbeing is robust, especially as previous research has linked purposefulness with longer, healthier, and happier lives.

“The people in your life are going to have a very, very big impact on that,” the researchers explain. “If you find yourself surrounded by people who bring you down… that’s going to have an impact.

“On the flipside, if you’re surrounded by people who lift you up and who infuse your life with positivity, that’s going to have an impact, too.”