Objectives Social frailty poses a major threat to successful ageing, but its social cognitive and psychological wellbeing correlates remain poorly understood. This cross-sectional study provides initial insights into whether social cognitive difficulties in older age are associated with social frailty, as well as how social frailty is linked to psychological characteristics known to be important for health and wellbeing. Method Ninety community-dwelling older adults completed measures of social frailty and social cognition (social perception, theory of mind, affective empathy, and informant-rated social behavior) as well as measures of psychological function known to be important for health and wellbeing, both positively (resilience and life satisfaction) and negatively (demoralization, social anxiety, and apathy). Measures of cognitive frailty, physical frailty and depression were also administered to test the specificity of any observed relationships with social frailty. Results Both affective empathy and social behavior were predictive of increased social frailty, but social behavior emerged as the only unique predictor after controlling for covariates. Social frailty also predicted unique variance in all five measures of psychological wellbeing, and for three of these measures (demoralization, resilience, and life satisfaction), the effects remained significant even after adjusting for covariates. Discussion Findings are discussed in relation to models of socioemotional aging and frailty. Potential mechanisms linking social behavior to social capital in older age are identified, as well as how loss of social resources might both directly and indirectly impact wellbeing.

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Objectives Social cognitive function often declines in older age but the mechanisms underlying these declines are not completely clear. Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and muscular strength have been shown to be positively associated with broader cognitive function in older adults, yet surprisingly, no study has examined whether a similar relationship exists between CRF or muscular strength and social cognition in older age. Method We assessed whether higher CRF and muscular strength were associated with enhanced social cognitive function in a sample of fifty older adults (Mage= 70.08, SD = 3.93). Participants completed a gold-standard cardiopulmonary exercise test to assess CRF, an isometric handgrip strength test to index muscular strength, and validated measures of social cognition to index emotion perception and theory of mind [ToM]. Results The results showed that CRF and muscular strength did not explain any unique variance in older adults’ social cognitive performance. Bayesian analyses confirmed that the evidence for the null hypothesis was moderate for all tested relationships, except for the relationship between CRF and cognitive ToM where the evidence for the null was anecdotal. Discussion This study has provided the first evidence to suggest that CRF and muscular strength – two important modifiable lifestyle factors – are not associated with social cognition in healthy older adults. However, replication studies are now needed to cross-validate these findings, and to clarify whether any moderating variables may be important for understanding the relationship between fitness and social cognition in older age.