Sense of Purpose and Experiences of Discrimination During Older Adulthood

Experiencing discrimination may hinder purposeful pursuits, but it remains unclear whether experiences continue to hinder sense of purpose into older adulthood. Using the Health and Retirement Study dataset from the United States (M-Age = 65.06; 17% Black, 83% White), the current study examined how everyday and major discrimination relates to sense of purpose and explored whether race and the perceived reason for discrimination moderates these relationships. Results indicate that, while both everyday and major discrimination are negatively associated with sense of purpose, only everyday discrimination remains significant when included in the same model. Additionally, race moderates these associations, whereby Black adults show less negative relationships than White adults. However, there is little evidence that perceiving discrimination as stemming from racism moderates purpose-discrimination associations.