Cognitive functioning in context: Leisure activity engagement, social capital, and urbanicity-rurality interplay

Abstract

Leisure activity associations with cognition may operate differently depending on an individual’s context. We evaluated whether activity-cognition associations were influenced by community and geographic features in CATSLife ( M age = 33.17 years, N = 1201). Measures included cognition indexed by IQ and activity engagement indexed by time, cognitive demand, and frequency. County-level Index of Relative Rurality (IRR) and Social Capital Index (SCI), i.e., the availability of social networks and resources, captured environmental features. In multilevel models, activity engagement was more strongly associated with IQ than SCI and rurality. We found evidence that activity-IQ associations were magnified in urban environments when SCI was high, but associations were reduced when SCI was low. However, adolescent IQ diminished associations, revealing selection effects. Our findings highlight interrelated individual, community, and geographic factors influencing cognitive functioning, but also the saliency of earlier life cognition to attained contexts, that together may contribute to cognitive maintenance at midlife and beyond.