Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, 506125University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Department of Sociology, 7938University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
J Aging Health. 2021 Mar;33(3-4):217-226. doi: 10.1177/0898264320972547. Epub 2020 Nov 23.
We examine whether childhood family well-being is associated with cognitive functioning and to what extent the association between the family context and cognitive functioning is explained by adulthood resources. Data are drawn from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project Wave 3 (2015/2016; = 3361). We measured cognitive functioning using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Childhood family factors included family-life happiness, family structure, and family socioeconomic status. Education, social connectedness, self-mastery, and self-rated health were assessed as adulthood resources. Respondents who grew up in a happy family had significantly higher levels of cognitive functioning. The formal mediation test suggests that a happy family life during childhood has a positive association with later cognition, in part, by enhancing self-mastery in adulthood. Our findings provide evidence that positive childhood experiences are linked to later life cognition. The sense of control people have over their life circumstances is one potential pathway explaining this association.
我们考察了童年家庭幸福感是否与认知功能有关，以及家庭环境与认知功能之间的关联在多大程度上可以用成年后的资源来解释。数据来自全国社会生活、健康和老龄化项目第三波（2015/2016 年；n=3361）。我们使用蒙特利尔认知评估来衡量认知功能。童年家庭因素包括家庭生活幸福、家庭结构和家庭社会经济地位。教育、社会联系、自我掌控和自我健康评估作为成年后的资源。在幸福家庭中长大的受访者认知功能明显更高。正式的中介测试表明，童年时期幸福的家庭生活与以后的认知能力有积极的关联，部分原因是通过增强成年后的自我掌控感。我们的研究结果提供了证据，证明积极的童年经历与以后的生活认知有关。人们对生活环境的控制感是解释这种关联的一个潜在途径。
