and other forms of spiritual practice.
Self-reported data from Gallup (2015) about religious affiliation of adults of all ages reveal the following: 38% identify as Protestant, 23% as Catholic, 9% as “unaffiliated” Christian, and 2% as Jewish. A smaller but increasing number of people living in the United States identify as Muslim. In 2017, Muslims of all ages made up 1.1% of the U.S. population. This represents 3.4 million people, 2.15 million of whom were adults (Mohamed, 2018). Interestingly, the same survey shows that the percentage of religiously “unaffiliated” persons is increasing. This compares to long-standing data suggesting that as they grow older, Americans continue to display patterns of religious identification similar to those among younger age groups: 65% identify as Protestant, 25% as Catholic, and 3% as Jewish (Pew Research Center, 2012a). In terms of the percentage of adults in the United States identifying as Muslim, 4% are age 65 or older (Cox & Jones, 2017). According to ongoing Gallup surveys, older women tend to have higher levels of religious participation and belief than do older men. Although survey data vary, it seems that, overall, anywhere from 30% to 60% of all older adults attend religious services at least once a week, and attendance tends to be positively related to measures of personal adjustment. When we look at church attendance from a life course perspective, we see the influence of family structure. Parents with young children often get involved in church activities, but after middle age, attendance falls off.
Despite these variations, older people are still more likely to be involved with their church, synagogue, or mosque than with other kinds of community organizations. Among mainstream Protestant and Catholic churches, as well as Jewish synagogues, a large proportion of the congregation is over age 50. Adults ages 65 and older are twice as likely to attend religious services regularly as those under 30. But it is a mistake to assume that people simply become more religious as they get older. Today’s older generation appears to be more religious, but that effect may be due more to cohort or generational effects than to age. For instance, older adults may have gone to Sunday school or been involved in religious activities throughout life. Such lifelong religious identification explains higher religiosity in old age. Recent poll data suggest that these patterns may be changing over time as cohorts move through the life course and the boomers—people born between 1946 and 1964—enter into later life. For example, the percentage of religiously unaffiliated persons is increasing, and current young adults are more likely to be religiously unaffiliated than other cohorts were at the same age (Pew Research Center, 2016).
Houses of worship and religious organizations play many roles in the lives of older people: in formal religious programs, through pastoral care programs, and as sponsors or providers of social services. Older adults find fulfillment in a variety of church-sponsored volunteer activities, but ironically, organized religion has often emphasized services and activities for youth. Innovative programs—such as Bible classes geared to older people, intergenerational programs, and new volunteer roles—could change that picture in the future. Congregations represent a great, partly untapped resource for older people to find meaning, provided that religious groups recognize that later-life spirituality may take a different form than participation in the religion of youth or midlife (Atchley, 2009).
Religious Participation and Well-Being
Researchers have been interested in the benefits that religion and spirituality can have for older people. Cross-sectional studies have found a positive correlation between measures of well-being and religious beliefs among the old (MacKinlay & McFadden, 2004). Those with high levels of religious commitment also have higher levels of life satisfaction than those for whom religious commitment is not as important. This relationship holds true even when controlling for age, marital status, education, and perceived health status.
But the significance of these correlations may be less than meets the eye. How do we define or measure what “religiousness” actually means in people’s lives? Another difficulty is the partial confounding of religious involvement with measures of functional health status. Does religious engagement actually promote physical health (George et al., 2013)?
Participation in religious activities and spiritual practices has been connected to well-being in later life.
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Empirical studies have shown that religion can serve as a means of helping older people cope with stress. For example, the Duke Longitudinal Studies of Aging found that older persons who used religion as a coping mechanism were more likely to exhibit higher levels of adjustment than others, even during intense life stress, such as bereavement and chronic illness. Nearly half of the respondents in the Duke studies reported that religious attitudes or behavior helped them cope with stressful life events. Among those who relied on religion, coping strategies reflect different patterns of disengagement or activity. Private religious beliefs and behaviors, such as trust, faith in God, and prayer, were cited as coping strategies more frequently than church-related and religious social activities.
Investigators theorize that religion helps older adults cope in a variety of ways:
By reducing the impact of stress in late-life illness
By providing a sense of order and meaning in life
By offering social networks tied to religious groups
By strengthening inner psychological resources, such as self-esteem
Urban Legends of Aging
“Religion is good for your health.”
It’s true that people who attend church tend to live longer, but no one knows why. Some studies suggest that volunteerism, the arts, lifelong learning, or even having a pet will give the same result. It could be that religion has little to do with it; maybe bowling would do the same (but not bowling alone). Here, as so often, correlation is not causation.
Spirituality and the Search for Meaning
Habits of religiosity, like other behaviors, tend to remain stable as people move into later life, but faith can take on new meanings as we grow older. One research team found that, among those who had undergone some distinct change in religious faith, 40% reported experiencing such a change after the age of 50. The researchers concluded that changes in religious faith are not limited to youth but can occur at any time in the life course (Koenig, 1994).
Often the personal search for meaning leads to deeper understanding of religious faith. James Fowler (1981) developed a framework of faith stages describing how people move from simpler, more literalist ideas of religion to levels where they see themselves and their lives in more universal terms, as the greatest saints and mystics have preached. As examples of those who have reached the highest stage of faith, Fowler cites personalities like Dag Hammarskjöld, Abraham Heschel, Thomas Merton, and Mahatma Gandhi.
Theologians who have reflected on the life course tend to view aging not as a problem that calls for a solution but as an existential condition that can provide an opportunity for personal growth, or what some have called a spiritual journey (Bianchi, 2011) that can lead to a contemplative dimension for aging (Tornstam, 1997). In terms of Erik Erikson’s developmental theory, older adults struggle with a psychological conflict between ego integrity and despair. Faith can be a way of enhancing ego integrity—an attitude of acceptance toward life and the world that is part of positive mental health. Stressing the importance of religion for mental health, Blazer (1991) has identified six dimensions of spiritual
