Abstract
Trauma exposure leads to poor health outcomes, such as elevated inflammation, and increased inflammation is associated with cognitive decline. This suggests a potential link between trauma and cognition. Resilient individuals can positively adapt to traumatic experiences, potentially avoiding some consequences of trauma exposure. We examined trauma, resilience, and age of trauma exposure as predictors of level and change in cognitive functioning. Data were from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, a national survey that began in 1995 with 7,108 participants, aged 24 to 75. Trauma exposure, resilience, and age of exposure were from the 2004 wave, while cognitive data were from the 2004 and 2013 waves. Multilevel modeling showed that resilience significantly predicted level (Est. = 0.09, SE = 0.04, p<.05) and change (Est. = 0.07, SE = 0.03, p<.05) in executive functioning (EF), and also interacted with trauma in relation to change in EF (Est. = 0.08, SE = 0.04, p<.05) and level of episodic memory (EM; Est. = 0.12, SE = 0.05, p<.05). Delta pseudo-R^2 values were small (0.01 to 0.03). Individuals with more resilience had higher EF and less EF decline than those with less resilience. Among individuals with high trauma exposure, those with more resilience had less EF decline. For individuals with low resilience, those with more trauma exposure had lower levels of EM. These findings highlight the importance of resilience in cognitive functioning and decline, and identify trauma exposure as a risk factor for cognitive decline in less resilient individuals.