The path to better physical and emotional health, especially with age.
Getting out and chatting with others is linked to higher emotional well-being.
People who spend more time interacting with a wide range of others experience greater emotional well-being, especially in older adulthood.
Older adults who interacted with more family members, close friends and acquaintances experienced more positive moods and fewer negative feelings, the study found.
Professor Karen Fingerman, the study’s first author, said:
“Adults often grow less physically active and more sedentary as they age, and these behaviors pose a risk factor for disease and death.
It is difficult to convince people to go to the gym or commit to work out on a regular basis.
But they may be willing to reach out to acquaintances, attend an organized group event, or talk to the barista who serves them at their favorite coffee shop.
Socializing in these contexts also can increase physical activity and diverse behaviors in ways that benefit health without necessarily working up a sweat.”
For the study, over 300 adults were tracked every three hours, over a week.
The results showed that people engaged with a greater variety of social partners were also more physically active.
More interactions with acquaintances were linked to greater physical activity and better physical and emotional health.
Professor Fingerman said:
“Older adults may be able to be more sedentary with their close friends and family — sitting and watching TV or otherwise lounging at home.
But to engage with acquaintances, older adults must leave the house, or at least get up out of their chair to answer the door.”
Professor Debra Umberson, study co-author, said:
“Prior research on aging has focused almost entirely on the benefits of social connection with close social ties such as a spouse or an adult child.
This new research relies on truly novel data that capture both the amount and quality of contact with all types of people that the elderly encounter throughout the day — and the results show us that these routine encounters have important benefits for activity levels and psychological well-being.
This new information suggests the importance of policies and programs that support and promote routine and informal social participation.”
The study was published in the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences (Fingerman et al., 2020).
