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Examining the Effects of Religious Attendance on Resilience for Older Adults

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Abstract

Growing older often brings hardship, adversity, and even trauma. Resilience is a broad term used to describe flourishing despite adversity. To date, resilience and the connections to religion have not been well studied, despite compelling evidence that religious practice can promote psychological health. This research examines the role that religion plays in promoting resilience among older adults. Research questions include: (a) What is the relationship between religion and trait resilience? and (b) Does religion promote resilient reintegration following traumatic life events? Results indicate that religious service attendance is tied to higher levels of trait resilience and that both service attendance and trait resilience directly predict lower levels of depression and higher rates of resilient reintegration following traumatic life events. Findings suggest that religious service attendance has protective properties that are worthy of consideration when investigating resilience.

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Notes

  1. The alpha value is 0.92 for respondents who received the LBQ in 2006 and 2008, giving an overall wave one alphas value of 0.92. For simplicity, this alpha is calculated using listwise deletion (use about 91% of respondents).

  2. Alpha values were 0.78 for responses in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012, giving overall alphas of 0.78 for measures at both wave 1 and wave 2.

  3. The SRS and depression measures are related, but distinct.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr. Linda George for her thoughtful feedback on a previous draft of this article.

Funding

The author, Dr. Lydia Manning, disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article by NIH Grant 5T32 AG00029-35 (LM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Graduate Studies - Gerontology, Concordia University-Chicago, 7400 Augusta Street, River Forest, IL, 60305, USA

    Lydia K. Manning

  2. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Andrew Miles

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  1. Lydia K. Manning
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Correspondence to Lydia K. Manning.

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Manning, L.K., Miles, A. Examining the Effects of Religious Attendance on Resilience for Older Adults. J Relig Health 57, 191–208 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0438-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0438-5

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