title: Aging and religious participation in late life.
abstract: The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between two dimensions of religiosity and the process of aging. Secondary analysis of longitudinal data from the Florida Retirement Study was used to assess the trajectories of religious development over time. We analyzed data from six interview waves with 1,000 older adults aged 72 or over. A baseline model of growth processes only indicated significant variation and mean decline in religious attendance, but no significant variation nor mean change in religious beliefs over time. A final model including a set of 17 covariates was estimated, and the model fit statistics indicated very good fit for this latent growth curve model. The decline in mean religious attendance across time did not accompany a mean increase in religious beliefs as expected. There were numerous individual differences in the trajectory of decline for religious attendance, as well as in the initial levels of attendance and religious beliefs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Municipal Hsiao-Kang Hospital, No. 482, Shanming Rd., Hsiaogang Dist., Kaohsiung City, 812, Taiwan, ROC, hry950197@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Kuan-Yuan
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Kyle
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kercher
authors.forename: Jui-Yen
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kosloski
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012944:Social Support