Longitudinal Associations of Volunteering, Grandparenting, and Family Care With Processing Speed: A Gender Perspective on Prosocial Activity and Cognitive Aging in the Second Half of Life.

An active lifestyle has been associated with better cognitive performance in many studies. However, most studies have focused on leisure activities or paid work, with less consideration of the kind of prosocial activities, many people engage in, including volunteering, grandparenting, and family care. In the present study, based on four waves of the German Ageing Survey (N = 6,915, aged 40–85 at baseline), we used parallel growth curves to investigate the longitudinal association of level and change in volunteering, grandparenting, and family care with level and change in processing speed. Given the gendered nature of engagement in these activities over the life span, we tested for gender differences in the associations. Only volunteering was reliably associated with higher speed of processing at baseline, no consistent longitudinal associations were found. Our results show that although prosocial activities are of great societal importance, expectations of large rewards in terms of cognitive health may be exaggerated. Public Significance Statement: Men and women differ in their rate of volunteering, grandparenting, and family care, as well as their cognitive aging when operationalized as processing speed. Those who volunteer in midlife show better cognitive performance, but the direction of effects is not clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]