Losing My Religion: An Analysis of the Decline in Religious Attendance from Childhood to Adulthood

Sexuality, Gender, and Religious Attendance

Fieldwork in Religion ◽

10.1558/firn.v7i2.102 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Melissa Wilcox

Keyword(s):

Los Angeles ◽

Sexual Identity ◽

Gay Men ◽

Race And Ethnicity ◽

Religious Involvement ◽

Religious Practice ◽

Religious Attendance ◽

Transgendered People ◽

Nuanced Understanding ◽

The Life Course

Existing research on religious organizations serving lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people has noted a dearth of women in such congregations but has offered little explanation for this phenomenon. Working from a study conducted with 29 lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women in the greater Los Angeles area, this paper demonstrates that race and ethnicity, feminism, a concern for LGBT rights, and interaction between the life-course patterns of religion and sexual identity influenced participants’ decisions about religious involvement. These results, while not generalizable, indicate the need for a nuanced understanding of both religious practice and identity in larger studies of gender, sexuality, and religious attendance.

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Ethnicity, Americanization, and Religious Attendance

American Journal of Sociology ◽

10.1086/225632 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 79 (4) ◽

pp. 906-922 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hart M. Nelsen ◽

H. David Allen

Keyword(s):

Religious Attendance

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A Faith to Move Mountains? Childhood Abuse, Religious Change, and Mental Health at Midlife

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1493 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 461-461

Author(s):

Laura Upenieks

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Life Course ◽

Childhood Abuse ◽

Childhood Maltreatment ◽

Well Being ◽

The United States ◽

Religious Attendance ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Religious Importance ◽

The Life Course

Abstract Of all the various forms of adversity experienced during childhood, childhood maltreatment (emotional and physical abuse) is shown to have the largest impacts on mental health and well-being. Yet we still have a limited understanding of why some victims of early maltreatment suffer immense mental health consequences later on in the life course, while others are able to cushion the blow of these early insults. Using two waves of data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), this study considers change in religiosity as a buffer across three dimensions for victims of childhood abuse: religious importance, attendance, and the specific act of seeking comfort through religion. Results suggest that increases in religious comfort during adulthood are positively associated with adult mental health for victims of abuse, while decreases in religious comfort over time were associated with worse mental health. Changes in religious attendance and religious importance were not significant associated with mental health for victims of abuse. Taken together, my results show that the stress-moderating effects of religion for victims of childhood maltreatment are contingent on the stability or increases or decreases in religiosity over the life course, which has been overlooked in previous work.

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Aspiring to Do All Things Through Him Who Strengthens? Quixotic Hope, Religiosity, and Mental Health in Emerging Adulthood

Society and Mental Health ◽

10.1177/21568693211008505 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 215686932110085

Author(s):

Laura Upenieks

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Well Being ◽

Educational Expectations ◽

Religious Practice ◽

The United States ◽

Religious Attendance ◽

National Study ◽

Health Consequences

Beliefs about the probability of educational success tend to be very optimistic in the United States. However, scholars are beginning to uncover mental health consequences associated with quixotic hope—the unrealistic outstripping of expectation by aspiration. Using longitudinal data from Waves 1 and 3 of the National Study of Youth and Religion, this study asks, (1) does religiosity promote or diminish the likelihood of quixotic hope? and (2) does religious attendance and closeness to God mitigate long-term mental health consequences of quixotic hope? Results show that weekly religious attendance had a modest negative relationship with the likelihood of experiencing quixotic hope, while increasing religious attendance over time attenuated the negative mental health consequences of quixotic hope on increases in depression. Closeness to God neither predicted quixotic hope nor played a moderating role for depression. As educational expectations rise, regular religious practice may help protect the emotional well-being of youth.

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Factors beyond Workplace Matter: The Effect of Family Support and Religious Attendance on Sustaining Well-Being of High-Technology Employees

Healthcare ◽

10.3390/healthcare9050602 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 602

Author(s):

Ing-Chung Huang ◽

Pey-Lan Du ◽

Long-Sheng Lin ◽

Tsai-Fei Lin ◽

Shu-Chun Kuo

Keyword(s):

Family Support ◽

Work Engagement ◽

Spillover Effect ◽

High Technology ◽

Well Being ◽

Moderating Effect ◽

Religious Attendance ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Support Work

Background: Apart from the workplace, drawing support from family and religion is critical to maintaining the well-being of high-technology employees. Relying on the job demands-resources model and the positive affective spillover effect, the aim of this study was to investigate the mediated relationship of family support, work engagement and subjective well-being, and the moderating effect of religious attendance on the mediated relationship. Methods: A cross-sectional research design was adopted. Mediation and moderated mediation were tested using the PROCESS macro v3.5 for the SPSS supplement. Purposive sampling was used for the distribution of questionnaires to high-technology employees in Taiwan. Results: Results from the data of 603 high-technology employees indicated that family support, work engagement, and subjective well-being exhibited a significant mediated relationship, and the mediated relationship was stronger among individuals with religious attendance experience. Conclusions: This study emphasizes the driving effect of family support on high-technology employee well-being and the moderating effect of religious attendance as a situational strength. We recommend closely attending to employee well-being because doing so is conducive to both the personal quality of life of employees and the sustainable development of organizations.

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Direct and Mediated Effects of Nativity and Other Indicators of Acculturation on Hispanic Mothers’ Use of Physical Aggression

Child Maltreatment ◽

10.1177/1077559511421523 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 262-274 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Inna Altschul ◽

Shawna J. Lee

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Parenting Stress ◽

Physical Aggression ◽

The United States ◽

Religious Attendance ◽

Foreign Born ◽

Maternal Aggression ◽

Maternal Alcohol ◽

Hispanic Mothers

This study used data from 845 foreign-born ( n = 328) and native-U.S. born ( n = 517) Hispanic mothers who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to examine four indicators of acculturation—nativity, years lived in the United States, religious attendance, and endorsement of traditional gender norms—as predictors of maternal physical aggression directed toward young children. The authors also examined whether psychosocial risk factors associated with child maltreatment and acculturation—maternal alcohol use, depression, parenting stress, and intimate partner aggression and violence—mediate relationships between acculturation and maternal aggression. Foreign-born Hispanic mothers had significantly lower rates of physical aggression than native-born Hispanic mothers. In path modeling results, U.S. nativity, along with maternal alcohol use, parenting stress, and child aggressive behavior, emerged as the strongest risk factors for maternal physical aggression. Among the four acculturation indicators, only foreign birth was directly associated with lower maternal aggression. Study findings suggest immigrant status is a unique protective factor that contributes to lower levels of physical aggression among Hispanic mothers.

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Religious Attendance and Cognitive Functioning Among Older Mexican Americans

The Journals of Gerontology Series B ◽

10.1093/geronb/61.1.p3 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 61 (1) ◽

pp. P3-P9 ◽

Cited By ~ 65

Author(s):

T. D. Hill ◽

A. M. Burdette ◽

J. L. Angel ◽

R. J. Angel

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Functioning ◽

Mexican Americans ◽

Religious Attendance

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Do Racial Differences in Coping Resources Explain the Black–White Paradox in Mental Health? A Test of Multiple Mechanisms

Journal of Health and Social Behavior ◽

10.1177/00221465211041031 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002214652110410

Author(s):

Patricia Louie ◽

Laura Upenieks ◽

Christy L. Erving ◽

Courtney S. Thomas Tobin

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Support ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Racial Differences ◽

Black Americans ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Coping Resources ◽

Religious Attendance ◽

Health Study ◽

White Americans

A central paradox in the mental health literature is the tendency for black Americans to report similar or better mental health than white Americans despite experiencing greater stress exposure. However, black Americans’ higher levels of certain coping resources may explain this finding. Using data from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (n = 1,186), we examine whether black Americans have higher levels of self-esteem, social support, religious attendance, and divine control than white Americans and whether these resources, in turn, explain the black–white paradox in mental health. In adjusted models, the black–white paradox holds for depressive symptoms and any DSM-IV disorder. Findings indicate that black Americans have higher levels of self-esteem, family social support, and religiosity than white Americans. Causal mediation techniques reveal that self-esteem has the largest effect in explaining black–white differences in depressive symptoms, whereas divine control has the largest effect in explaining differences in disorder.

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