Anxiety symptoms and theory of mind in older and younger adults: curvilinearity moderated by age group

Abstract

Objectives

Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to reason about mental states, declines in later life. While anxiety symptoms may predict ToM abilities, the nature of associations requires more elucidation. Further, it is unknown whether age group moderates associational patterns. We examined associations between anxiety symptoms (linear and curvilinear) and cognitive ToM (C-ToM) and affective ToM (A-ToM); and moderation by age group (older vs. younger adults).

Methods

In a sample of healthy younger (n = 90, M_age = 20.17 years) and older adults (n = 87, M_age = 71.52), we used hierarchical regressions with polynomial and interaction terms to assess the association between anxiety symptoms and ToM in younger and older adults.

Results

Anxiety symptoms were associated with C-ToM but not A-ToM. Age group interacted linearly with anxiety (β = −1.64, p = .02), and with anxiety’s quadratic polynomial (β = .84, p = .04). The inverted-U shaped association in younger adults (highest C-ToM at moderate anxiety) contrasted with older adults’ linear decline in C-ToM with increasing anxiety.

Conclusion

We highlight the importance of anxiety symptoms for predicting ToM, and clarify that associations vary by age. Elucidating associations may be critical to developing interventions that improve social wellbeing.

Keywords:

• Theory of mind
• anxiety
• cognitive aging
• older adults
• Yerkes-Dodson law

Acknowledgements

The authors extend their gratitude to members of the SFU Cognitive Aging Lab for assistance with data collection and to the participants of this study who very generously provided their time and effort. The authors also thank Dr. Michael Mauran and Ian Bercovitz for providing statistical consultation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council under Grants SSHRC-410-2010-0407 and 425-2020-0183 awarded to Dr. Wendy Loken Thornton, and a Canadian Institute of Health Research Award grant awarded to McKenzie Braley.