The long arm of divorce and death: Loss, loneliness, and cognition in mid and later life

Background: Early life adversities can have lifelong consequences for health, including for cognitive functioning and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Moreover, early-life disadvantages stemming from parental death and divorce have been linked with later life social, mental, and physical well-being outcomes, including social isolation. Therefore, loneliness stands out as an intervenable aspect of well-being that may mediate long-term consequences of early life exposure to parental death and divorce for midlife and older adults’ cognitive decline. Objective: The present study aims to determine whether early life exposures to parental death and/or divorce are associated with cognitive functioning in later life, and whether loneliness in midlife mediates such effects. Methods: We used the 2014-2020 Health and Retirement Study (HRS), 2015 HRS Life History data and longitudinal structural equation modeling to address our research questions. Results: Early-life exposure to parental divorce, but not death, was associated with greater loneliness in late midlife and older age, and loneliness predicted more rapid declines to cognitive functioning over time. Mediation was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Although racial/ethnic minorities had higher exposure to both parental death and divorce, the effects of parental death and divorce were similar across race/ethnicity. Our results underscore the long-term impacts of parental divorce on well-being and health in adulthood and highlight loneliness as a critical determinant of cognitive declines and disparities in later life.