Marital Life-Course Trajectories and Cognitive Function among Older Adults: Evidence from China

Objective : Expanding the scope of marital research from a specific point in time to the entire marital trajectory throughout adulthood can help reveal the differential impacts of different marital trajectories on cognitive health in later life. Based on the life course perspective, this study examines the relationship between the marital life-course trajectory of Chinese older adults and cognitive function, and analyzes the psychosocial mechanisms, health behavior pathways, as well as gender, cognitive dimension, and urban-rural differences. Methods : Using the longitudinal data from the 2011-2020 waves of CHARLS and the 2014 Life Course Survey data, the marital status sequence of the respondents from ages 18 to 60 was reconstructed. The optimal matching method and Ward hierarchical clustering method were employed to identify the marital life-course trajectories. On this basis, the linear mixed-effects model was used to analyze the relationship between different marital trajectories and cognitive function, and the mechanism pathways of depressive symptoms, social participation, current smoking, and physical exercise were examined. At the same time, gender heterogeneity, cognitive dimension analysis, urban-rural heterogeneity analysis, as well as robustness and selection bias tests were conducted. Results : The study identified six types of marital trajectories: long-term no-union status, later-entry stable first union, early-entry stable first union, later-life widowhood after stable first union, early-/midlife widowhood, and remarriage/re-partnering. Compared to those who entered a stable first union early, the cognitive function of older adults in the long-term no-union, later-entry stable first union, and remarriage/re-partnering groups was significantly lower, and this result remained valid after multiple robustness and selection bias tests. Mechanism pathway analysis revealed that depressive symptoms, social participation, current smoking, and physical exercise could partially explain the relationship between marital life-course trajectories and cognitive function in later life. Heterogeneity analysis found that the cognitive disadvantage of older men was more evident in the long-term no-union status and later-entry stable first union trajectories, while the negative association of remarriage/re-partnering experiences was more pronounced in the female sample; the differences in marital trajectories were mainly reflected in executive function/mental intactness, and were more prominent in rural older adults. Conclusion : Marital life-course trajectory is significantly associated with the cognitive function of older adults. Long-term no union, later-entry stable first union, and remarriage/re-partnering may be risk trajectories for cognitive health. The study suggests that attention should be paid to the mental health, social participation, and health behaviors of older adults with unstable or discontinuous marital experiences, and special emphasis should be placed on men, rural older adults, and those at higher risk of impaired executive function/mental intactness, in order to promote healthy aging.