Religious Practices and Mental Health Among Older Adults in The U.S.

1
Religious Practices and Mental Health Among Older
Adults in The U.S.

• Christopher G. Ellison
• Department of Sociology
• The University of Texas at Austin

2
Religion and Mental Health

• Religion has a mostly salutary effect on mental
  health
• Religiousness conceptualized and measured in many
  ways, but religious behavior is the most common
• Organizational and non-organizational religiosity
  are the most common

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Limitations in the Study of Religion and Mental
Health

• Paucity of longitudinal studies
• Measurement of religiousness
• Lack of consensus over which mental health
  outcomes are most closely linked with religion
• Minimal attention to subgroup variation
  (especially racial differences)
• Lack of clarity regarding the mechanisms that
  explain these relationships

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Why Focus on Organizational Religious Practices?

• Religious congregations provide the context for
  the cultivation of social relationships among
  those with shared beliefs and worldviews.
• Provides social support that affords
  socioemotional aid and spiritual reinforcement.
• Can bolster self-perceptions through positive
  appraisals or learned competency.
• Worship activities themselves may be emotionally
  uplifting spiritual events that reinforce
  plausibility structures.

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Why Focus on non-Organizational Religious
Practices?

• Personal devotional activities such as prayer may
  be essential for the development of a personal
  relationship with God.
• Believers engage in a conversation or dialogue
  with God.
• May create lower levels of somatic arousal and
  increased levels of tranquility.
• Bible reading, meditation, and other private
  religious behaviors may assist individuals in
  cultivating a spiritual narrative for their life
  experience

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Listening to Religious Music

• No empirical studies linking to mental health.
• Although exposure to music and individual
  emotional states have been linked (e.g. calmness,
  concentration).
• Anecdotal evidence from the faithful.
• Can elicit memories or spiritual experiences.

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Racial Differences in the Religion/Mental Health
Connection

• African Americans more Religious than
  non-Hispanic whites.
• Religious institutions, beliefs, and practices
  provide a distinctive social context for African
  Americans
• - Core institution in African American history
• - Practical theology
• - Relational Spirituality
• - Worship styles dispel negative emotions
• - Aspects of religiousness and spirituality may
  be more strongly related to health and well-being
  for African Americans than whites

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Research Questions

• Is it more important to focus on religious
  attendance or other forms of congregational and
  small group activities?
• Is it most important to consider the frequency of
  private prayer? Or do other non-organizational
  behaviors (e.g., Bible study, reading other
  religious materials) also matter?
• Is religious music in general linked with mental
  health?
• Are religious behaviors more predictive of mental
  health among African Americans? What mechanism
  mediate this relationship?

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Data and Methods

• Religion, Aging, and Health Survey, 2001, 2004
  (Neal Krause, PI)
• 1500 community-dwelling US adults ages 65 and
  over
• Roughly equal numbers of African Americans and
  non-Hispanic whites
• Persons of Christian affiliation or background
  only
• In-person interviews conducted by Harris
  Organization
• Has yielded numerous substantive and
  methodological contributions to the literatures
  in religion, social gerontology, and health
• OLS Regression
• - N1338-1363 cross sectional 912-942
  longitudinal

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Dependent Variables at T1 and T2

• Psychological Distress (8 items T1 alpha.87, T2
  alpha.88)
• Life Satisfaction (4 items T1 alpha.75, T2
  alpha.84)
• Self-Esteem (3 items T1 alpha.90, T2 alpha.91)
  
• Death Anxiety (4 items T1 alpha.85, T2
  alpha.89)
• Optimism (4 items T1 alpha.86, T2 alpha.89)
• Personal Mastery (4 items T1 alpha.85, T2
  alpha.86)

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Independent Variables at T1

• Organizational Religious Behavior How often do
  you attend religious services? --attend adult
  Sunday School or Bible study groups?
  --participate in prayer groups that are not part
  of regular worship services or Bible study
  groups? Are you a deacon, elder, lay pastor,
  church mother, chair of a church committee, choir
  director, or regular Sunday School teacher?
• Non-Organizational Religious Behavior How often
  do you pray by yourself? When you are at home
  how often do you --read the Bible? --read
  religious literature other than the Bible? --read
  religious newsletters, magazines, or church
  bulletins? How often do you --listen to
  religious music outside church --like when you
  are at home or driving in your car? --listen to
  Gospel music?

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Potential Mediators at T1

• Emotional Support from Church Members
• (3 items alpha.88)
• Anticipated Support from Church Members
• (3 items alpha.95)
• Positive Religious Coping Strategies
• (3 items alpha.90)
• Closeness to God
• (3 items alpha.93)
• Sense of God Control
• (6 items alpha.94)

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Table 1 Summary of Cross-Sectional Associations
Between Religious Practices and Mental Health
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Table 1 Summary of Cross-Sectional Associations
Between Religious Practices and Mental Health
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Table 2 Summary of Longitudinal Results
Between Religious Practices and Mental Health
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Table 2 Summary of Longitudinal Results
Between Religious Practices and Mental Health
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Discussion

• Religious behaviors most strongly associated with
  mental health in cross-sectional associations
• Religious attendance is linked with all 6
  outcomes for African Americans at T1, and with
  changes in 2 of the 6 (self-esteem and mastery)
  between T1 and T2
• No clear mediating factor for African Americans,
  while anticipated social support mediates the
  relationship between attendance and distress for
  whites

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Discussion Continued

• Other organizational aspects of religion were
  unrelated to mental health
• Frequency of prayer mediated by sense of god
  control in cross-sectional analyses prayer was
  associated with one mental health outcome in
  longitudinal analyses and no mediating factors
  were found
• Frequency of listening to religious music is
  associated with 2 psychosocial variables (life
  satisfaction and optimism) at T1, but strikingly,
  it is linked with favorable changes in 4 of the 6
  outcomes (satisfaction, optimism, self-esteem,
  and mastery) between T1 and T2

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Conclusion

• Focus on negative and positive aspects of mental
  health
• Explore temporal lags in gauging effects on
  mental health (i.e. more time points)
• Attendance at religious services yields greater
  gains for African Americans--Why?
• Effects of religious music require further
  exploration

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Conclusion Continued

• This study has attempted to address some of the
  issues absent in the literature including
• comparing the effects of multiple indicators of
  religious practice
• examining multiple indicators of mental health
• estimating models using both cross-sectional and
  longitudinal data
• exploring race differences in the key
  relationships
• conducting preliminary analyses of possible
  mediators
• Further work along these lines can help to
  clarify the nature of the complex connection
  between religion and mental health.

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Religious Practices and Mental Health Among Older
Adults in The U.S.

• Christopher G. Ellison
• Department of Sociology
• The University of Texas at Austin