Physical activity promotes life satisfaction via attitude toward own aging: Evidence from a three-wave random intercept panel study of older adults

OBJECTIVES: To examine the cross-lagged association between physical activity and life satisfaction, and the mediating role of attitudes toward one's own aging among older adults. METHODS: This study utilized data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS), involving 2063 older adults who participated in 2014, 2018 and 2022. Analyses were conducted in Mplus 8.3. A Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) was applied to examine the coefficients at the between-person and within-person levels, using the physical activity item, Attitude Toward Own Aging (ATOA), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) to test both direct and indirect pathways. RESULTS: The results shows that: (1) Measurement invariance of the scales across waves was sequentially supported at the configural, metric, scalar, and strict levels. (2) Direct effects: at the between-person level, PA was positively correlated with LS (r = 0.34, p < 0.001), whereas within-person cross-lagged effects were non-significant across waves (e.g., PA2014 → LS2018: β = -0.02, 95% CI [-0.11, 0.06]). (3) Indirect effects: for indirect effects, at the between-person level, higher PA was associated with greater ATOA and, in turn, higher LS (all β > 0.30, 95% CIs excluding zero), whereas at the within-person level, the indirect effect PA2014 → ATOA2018 → LS2022 was nonsignificant (β = -0.003, 95% CI [-0.07, 0.03]). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study reveal the long-term effects of PA on LS at both the within-person and between-person levels among older adults, providing empirical evidence for the role of PA as a psychological intervention in this population.