Department of Psychology, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA.
Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2011 Jul;18(4):414-31. doi: 10.1080/13825585.2011.567325.
Social support has a positive influence on cognitive functioning and buffers cognitive decline in older adults. This study examined the relations between social support and executive functioning in middle-aged adults. A community-based sample of African Americans completed the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, a measure of functions of social support, and two measures of executive functioning, the Stroop Color and Word Test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to explore the hypothesis that different facets of perceived social support influence performance on measures of executive functioning. After controlling for age, gender, and education, social support facets including belonging support, self-esteem support, appraisal support, and tangible support were significant predictors of Stroop performance. In addition, tangible support significantly predicted WCST performance. These findings add to previous literature on social support and cognition; however, findings for middle-aged adults are unique and suggest that social support has a positive influence on some executive functions in African Americans prior to old age.
社会支持对老年人的认知功能有积极影响，并能缓冲认知能力下降。本研究探讨了中年人群体中社会支持与执行功能之间的关系。一个基于社区的非裔美国人样本完成了人际关系支持评估表，这是一种衡量社会支持功能的方法，以及两种执行功能测试，即斯特鲁普颜色和文字测试以及威斯康星卡片分类测试（WCST）。分层回归分析用于探索假设，即感知社会支持的不同方面会影响执行功能测试的表现。在控制年龄、性别和教育程度后，归属感支持、自尊支持、评价支持和有形支持等社会支持方面是斯特鲁普表现的显著预测因素。此外，有形支持也显著预测了 WCST 的表现。这些发现增加了关于社会支持和认知的先前文献；然而，对于中年人群体的发现是独特的，表明在老年之前，社会支持对非裔美国人的一些执行功能有积极影响。
