Purpose in Life and Everyday Physical Symptoms: Age and Race Differences

A growing body of research shows that having a higher sense of purpose in life—defined as an enduring orientation toward valued life goals that organize behavior and engagement in meaningful activities (Ryff, 1989; Scheier et al., 2006)—is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality, as well as fewer daily physical symptoms such as pain, fatigue, and tension (Boyle et al., 2010; Kim et al., 2013; Hill et al., 2018). A proposed mechanism is described by the Resources and Perception Model, which suggests that psychosocial resources such as sense of purpose shape how individuals appraise and respond to stressors (Harber et al., 2008). Consistent with this model, higher purpose has been associated with reduced emotional and physiological reactivity and faster recovery following stress, particularly among older adults (van Reekum et al., 2007; Schaefer et al., 2013; Hill et al., 2018; Polenick et al., 2018; Kim et al., 2019). Together, older adults with a higher sense of purpose tend to perceive stressors as less difficult, are less reactive to such stressors, and recover more quickly after stressors. In contrast, lower purpose may be linked to more frequent, intense, and prolonged stress responses, which can disrupt homeostasis and accumulate over time as allostatic load, increasing vulnerability to chronic disease and functional decline in later life (McEwen, 1998; Kim et al., 2013, 2022). Sense of purpose also varies across sociodemographic groups. Longitudinal research indicates that purpose generally increases into midlife and declines in later adulthood, partly due to reductions in perceived control and fewer opportunities for engagement in personally meaningful activities (Ko et al., 2016; Drewelies et al., 2017; Mann et al., 2019; Dewitte et al., 2024). The Purpose as Trait, Habit, and State (PATHS) model proposes that purpose exists at multiple levels, including a relatively stable sense of purpose and day-to-day experiences of meaning, and that these levels influence one another over time (Hill et al., 2023). Daily diary evidence demonstrates that engagement in culturally meaningful roles is a key source of purpose for Asian populations. Specifically, Asian American youth report higher daily purpose on days when they fulfill culturally valued family and academic roles, such as caregiving responsibilities, whereas days with fewer role-based activities are associated with lower purpose and poorer well-being (Kiang & Fuligni, 2010; Kiang, 2011). Although this evidence focuses on youth, it illustrates how culturally embedded social roles can generate purpose through everyday experiences, a process that may extend into adulthood. At the same time, racialized experiences may undermine purpose in later life. For example, Hill et al. (2021) found that although Native Hawaiian and Japanese American adults experienced higher levels of everyday discrimination than White adults, patterns of purpose and health outcomes diverged across groups: Native Hawaiians reported relatively high purpose and moderate sleep quality despite frequent discrimination, whereas Japanese Americans reported lower purpose and poorer sleep outcomes. These findings suggest that purpose may function as a resilience factor for some Asian and Pacific Islander populations, but not uniformly across groups. Although sense of purpose has been shown to differ across age and racial groups (Kiang & Fuligni, 2010; Ko et al., 2016; Mann et al., 2019), little is known about whether the protective association between purpose and physical health varies across these groups, particularly in the context of daily health experiences. Moreover, much of the existing literature relies on single-time assessments of purpose and health, limiting insight into how purpose relates to health as it naturally unfolds in daily life. Thus, the present study uses data from the Daily Experiences and Health study to test whether individuals with higher purpose report fewer daily physical symptoms; and whether this association differs (1) across younger and older adults and (2) between White and Asian/Pacific Islander participants.

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