TY - JOUR
T1 - Racial/ethnic variation of neighborhood social cohesion, loneliness, and cognitive functioning among midlife and older U.S. adults
AU - Stokes, Jeffrey E.
AU - Latham-Mintus, Kenzie
AU - Farmer, Heather R.
AU - Massihzadegan, Setarreh
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Gerontological Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact [email protected].
PY - 2026/6
Y1 - 2026/6
N2 - Objectives: Racial/ethnic disparities in cognition and dementia are well established. Social determinants of health researchers have identified neighborhood context as one potential contributor to these disparities, including neighborhood social context. Neighborhood social cohesion, in particular, may help to reduce loneliness and thereby improve cognitive aging among midlife and older adults. However, access to high-quality and cohesive neighborhood settings varies by race/ethnicity in the United States, as too may the association of neighborhood social cohesion with well-being outcomes such as loneliness. This study has 3 primary aims: (a) to determine whether neighborhood social cohesion protects against loneliness differently across racial/ethnic groups; (b) to determine whether loneliness is associated with accelerated cognitive decline; and (c) whether the combination of (a) and (b) means that neighborhood social cohesion protects against cognitive decline differently across racial/ethnic groups. Methods: This study uses 3-wave longitudinal data from the 2010 to 2020 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 7,879). Structural equation modeling using full information maximum likelihood methods to address missing data was used to simultaneously address our research questions. Results: Neighborhood social cohesion was associated with reduced loneliness only among non-Hispanic White participants. Loneliness was associated with cognitive decline among all racial/ethnic groups. As a result, loneliness mediated a significant indirect effect of neighborhood social cohesion on cognitive functioning among non-Hispanic White participants only. Discussion: Although loneliness was associated with greater declines in cognition over time across all racial/ethnic groups, only non-Hispanic White participants’ cognitive trajectories benefited from living in socially cohesive neighborhoods, via reduced loneliness.
AB - Objectives: Racial/ethnic disparities in cognition and dementia are well established. Social determinants of health researchers have identified neighborhood context as one potential contributor to these disparities, including neighborhood social context. Neighborhood social cohesion, in particular, may help to reduce loneliness and thereby improve cognitive aging among midlife and older adults. However, access to high-quality and cohesive neighborhood settings varies by race/ethnicity in the United States, as too may the association of neighborhood social cohesion with well-being outcomes such as loneliness. This study has 3 primary aims: (a) to determine whether neighborhood social cohesion protects against loneliness differently across racial/ethnic groups; (b) to determine whether loneliness is associated with accelerated cognitive decline; and (c) whether the combination of (a) and (b) means that neighborhood social cohesion protects against cognitive decline differently across racial/ethnic groups. Methods: This study uses 3-wave longitudinal data from the 2010 to 2020 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 7,879). Structural equation modeling using full information maximum likelihood methods to address missing data was used to simultaneously address our research questions. Results: Neighborhood social cohesion was associated with reduced loneliness only among non-Hispanic White participants. Loneliness was associated with cognitive decline among all racial/ethnic groups. As a result, loneliness mediated a significant indirect effect of neighborhood social cohesion on cognitive functioning among non-Hispanic White participants only. Discussion: Although loneliness was associated with greater declines in cognition over time across all racial/ethnic groups, only non-Hispanic White participants’ cognitive trajectories benefited from living in socially cohesive neighborhoods, via reduced loneliness.
KW - Cognition
KW - Longitudinal analysis
KW - Neighborhoods
KW - Race/ethnicity
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105038220973
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105038220973#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1093/geronb/gbag049
DO - 10.1093/geronb/gbag049
M3 - Article
C2 - 41975234
AN - SCOPUS:105038220973
SN - 1079-5014
VL - 81
JO - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
JF - Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
IS - 6
ER -