Hostility, forgiveness, and cognitive impairment over 10 years in a national sample of American adults.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:We examined the extent to which self-forgiveness and forgiveness of others moderated the association of hostility with changes in cognitive impairment over 10 years in a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States. METHOD:Participants were 1,084 respondents to the Americans' Changing Lives survey, a longitudinal study of American adults. Hostility, self-forgiveness, forgiveness of others, and cognitive impairment were measured at baseline, and cognitive impairment was assessed again at follow-up. Moderated multiple regression analyses tested whether self-forgiveness and forgiveness of others moderated the association of hostility with changes in cognitive impairment over time, controlling for baseline cognitive impairment and relevant sociodemographic and clinical factors. RESULTS:As hypothesized, greater hostility levels at baseline predicted more cognitive impairment 10 years later, ? = .08, p < .01. In addition, self-forgiveness at baseline moderated the association between baseline hostility and cognitive impairment at follow-up, ? = -.07, p < .01. Decomposing this interaction revealed that hostility significantly predicted increased cognitive impairment at follow-up for individuals with low, ? = .15, p < .001, and average, ? = .08, p = .001, levels of self-forgiveness but not for persons with high levels of self-forgiveness, ? = .03, p = .34. In contrast, forgiveness of others was not a significant moderator. CONCLUSIONS:Greater hostility is associated with the development of more cognitive impairment over 10 years, and being more self-forgiving appears to mitigate these hostility-related effects on cognition. Enhancing self-forgiveness may thus represent one possible strategy for promoting cognitive resilience in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

SUBMITTER: Toussaint LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6263797 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature