Abstract
In this paper, we directly assessed the extent to which the association between religious attendance and the social support trajectories of older Mexican Americans is due to selection (spurious) processes related to personality, health status, and health behavior. We employed seven waves of data from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (1993–2010) to examine the association between religious attendance and perceived social support trajectories (n = 2479). We used growth mixture modeling to estimate latent classes of social support trajectories and multivariate multinomial logistic regression models to predict membership in the social support trajectory classes. Growth mixture estimates revealed three classes of social support trajectories: high, moderate, and low. Multinomial logistic regression estimates showed that the odds of membership in the low support trajectory class (versus the high social support trajectory class) were lower for respondents who attended religious services yearly, monthly, weekly, and more than weekly than for respondents who never attend religious services. Religious attendance could not distinguish between membership in the moderate and high support trajectory classes. These results persisted with adjustments for age, gender, immigrant status, language proficiency, education, income, religious affiliation, marital status, living arrangements, contact with family/friends, secular group memberships, self-esteem, smoking, heavy drinking, depression, cognitive functioning, and physical mobility. We conclude that the association between religious attendance and the social support trajectories of older Mexican Americans is primarily driven by processes related to social integration, not selection.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adamczyk, A. (2009). Socialization and selection in the link between friends' religiosity and the transition to sexual intercourse. Sociology of Religion, 70, 5–27.
Almeida, J., Molnar, B., Kawachi, I., & Subramanian, S. (2009). Ethnicity and nativity status as determinants of perceived social support: Testing the concept of familism. Social Science & Medicine, 68, 1852–1858.
Benjamins, M., Musick, M., Gold, D., & George, L. (2003). Age-related declines in activity level: The relationship between chronic illness and religious activities. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, S377–S385.
Blascovich, J., & Tomaka, J. (1991). Measures of self-esteem. In J. Robinson, P. Shaver, & L. Wrightsman (Eds.), Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes (pp. 115–160). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Bradley, D. E. (1995). Religious involvement and social resources: Evidence from the data set “Americans' changing lives”. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34, 259–267.
Call, V., & Heaton, T. (1997). Religious influence on marital stability. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 36, 382–392.
Cornwell, B., Laumann, E., & Schumm, L. (2008). The social connectedness of older adults: A national profile. American Sociological Review, 73, 185–203.
Cornwell, E., & Waite, L. (2009). Social disconnectedness, perceived isolation, and health among older adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 50, 31–48.
Durkheim, É. (1912/1995). The elementary forms of religious life. New York: The Free Press.
Ellison, C., Burdette, A., & Bradford Wilcox, W. (2010). The couple that prays together: Race and ethnicity, religion, and relationship quality among working-age adults. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72, 963–975.
Ellison, C., & George, L. (1994). Religious involvement, social ties, and social support in a southeastern community. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33, 46–61.
Ellison, C., Krause, N., Shepherd, B., & Chaves, M. (2009). Size, conflict, and opportunities for interaction: Congregational effects on members' anticipated support and negative interaction. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 48, 1–15.
Enders, C. (2001). A primer on maximum likelihood algorithms available for use with missing data. Structural Equation Modeling, 8, 128–141.
Ewing, J. (1984). Detecting alcoholism: The CAGE questionnaire. Journal of the American Medical Association, 252, 1905–1907.
Folstein, M., Folstein, S., & McHugh, P. (1975). ‘Mini-mental state’: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198.
Gray, A. (2009). The social capital of older people. Ageing & Society, 29, 5–31.
Guralnik, J., Ferrucci, L., Simonsick, E., Salive, M., & Wallace, R. (1995). Lower-extremity function in persons over the age of 70 years as a predictor of subsequent disability. New England Journal of Medicine, 332, 556–562.
Hastings, O. (2016). Not a lonely crowd? Social connectedness, religious service attendance, and the spiritual but not religious. Social Science Research, 57, 63–79.
Hill, T., Burdette, A., Angel, J., & Angel, R. (2006). Religious attendance and cognitive functioning among older Mexican Americans. The Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 61B, P3–P9.
Hill, T., Burdette, A., Regnerus, M., & Angel, R. (2008). Religious involvement and attitudes toward parenting among low-income urban women. Journal of Family Issues, 29, 882–900.
Hill, T., Angel, J., Balistreri, K., & Herrera, A. (2012). Immigration status and cognitive functioning in late life: An examination of gender variations in the healthy immigrant effect. Social Science & Medicine, 75, 2076–2084.
Hill, T., Burdette, A., Taylor, J., & Angel, J. (2016a). Religious attendance and the mobility trajectories of older Mexican Americans: An application of the growth mixture model. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 57, 118–134.
Hill, T., Uchino, B., Eckhardt, J., & Angel, J. (2016b). Perceived social support trajectories and Nthe all-cause mortality risk of older Mexican American women and men. Research on Aging, 38, 374–398.
House, J., Robbins, C., & Metzner, H. (1982). The association of social relationships and activities with mortality: Prospective evidence from the Tecumseh Community health study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 116, 123–140.
House, J., Landis, K., & Umberson, D. (1988a). Social relationships and health. Science, 241, 540–545.
House, J., Umberson, D., & Landis, K. (1988b). Structures and processes of social support. Annual Review of Sociology, 14, 293–318.
Iannaccone, L. R. (1990). Religious practice: A human capital approach. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 29, 297–314.
Idler, E. (1987). Religious involvement and the health of the elderly: Some hypotheses and an initial test. Social Forces, 66, 226–238.
Idler, E., & Kasl, S. (1992). Religion, disability, depression, and the timing of death. American Journal of Sociology, 97, 1052–1079.
Idler, E., & Kasl, S. (1997). Religion among disabled and nondisabled persons I: Cross-sectional patterns in health practices, social activities, and well-being. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 52, S294–S305.
Idler, E., Boulifard, D., Labouvie, E., Chen, Y., Krause, T., & Contrada, R. (2009). Looking inside the black box of “attendance at services”: New measures for exploring an old dimension in religion and health research. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 19, 1–20.
Johnson, T. (1991). Mental health, social relations, and social selection: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 32, 408–423.
Jung, T., & Wickrama, K. (2008). An introduction to latent class growth analysis and growth mixture modeling. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 302–317.
Kelley-Moore, J., & Ferraro, K. (2001). Functional limitations and religious service attendance in later life: Barrier and/or benefit mechanism? The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 56, S365–S373.
King, V., & Elder, G. (1999). Are religious grandparents more involved grandparents? The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 54, S317–S328.
Kobayashi, K., Cloutier-Fisher, D., & Roth, M. (2009). Making meaningful connections: A profile of social isolation and health among older adults in small town and small city, British Columbia. Journal of Aging and Health, 21, 374–397.
Koenig, H., King, D., & Carson, V. (2012). Handbook of religion and health. New York: Oxford University Press.
Krause, N. (2002). Church-based social support and health in old age: Exploring variations by race. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57, S332–S347.
Krause, N. (2003). Religious meaning and subjective well-being in late life. Journal of Gerontology, Series B: Social Sciences, 58B, S160–S170.
Krause, N. (2006). Social relationships in late life. In R. Binstock & L. George (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the social sciences (pp. 181–200). Boston: Elsevier.
Krause, N. (2008). Aging in the church: How social relationships affect health. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.
Krause, N., & Hayward, R. (2014a). Religious involvement, practical wisdom, and self-rated health. Journal of Aging and Health, 26, 540–558.
Krause, N., & Hayward, R. (2014b). Church-based social support, religious commitment, and health among older Mexican Americans. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 31, 352–365.
Le, D., Holt, C., Hosack, D., Huang, J., & Clark, E. (2016). Religious participation is associated with increases in religious social support in a national longitudinal study of African Americans. Journal of Religion and Health, 55, 1449–1460.
Lehrer, E., & Chiswick, C. (1993). Religion as a determinant of marital stability. Demography, 30, 385–404.
Lyyra, T., & Heikkinen, R. (2006). Perceived social support and mortality in older people. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 61, S147–S152.
Markides, K., Black, S., Ostir, G., Angel, R., Guralnik, J., & Lichtenstein, M. (2001). Lower body function and mortality in Mexican American elderly people. The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 56, M243–M247.
Merino, S. (2014). Social support and the religious dimensions of close ties. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 53, 595–612.
Mruk, C. (2013). Self-esteem and positive psychology: Research, theory, and practice. New York: Springer.
Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Radloff, L. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.
Ram, N., & Grimm, K. (2009). Growth mixture modeling: A method for identifying differences in longitudinal change among unobserved groups. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 33, 565–576.
Regnerus, M. D., & Smith, C. (2005). Selection effects in studies of religious influence. Review of Religious Research, 47, 23–50.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rote, S., Hill, T., & Ellison, C. (2013). Religious attendance and loneliness in later life. The Gerontologist, 53, 39–50.
Saitz, R., Lepore, M., Sullivan, L., Amaro, H., & Samet, J. (1999). Alcohol abuse and dependence in Latinos living in the United States. Archives of Internal Medicine, 159, 718–724.
Schafer, J., & Graham, J. (2002). Missing data: Our view of the state of art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147–177.
Schlomer, G., Bauman, S., & Card, N. (2010). Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57, 1–10.
Seeman, T., & Berkman, L. (1988). Structural characteristics of social networks and their relationship with social support in the elderly: Who provides support. Social Science & Medicine, 26, 737–749.
Taylor, R., & Chatters, L. (1988). Church members as a source of informal social support. Review of Religious Research, 30, 193–203.
Thomas, P. (2012). Trajectories of social engagement and mortality in late life. Journal of Aging and Health, 24, 547–568.
Uchino, B. (2004). Social support & physical health: Understanding the health consequences of relationships. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Wilcox, W., & Wolfinger, N. (2008). Living and loving “decent”: Religion and relationship quality among urban parents. Social Science Research, 37, 828–843.
Wilkins, K. (2003). Social support and mortality in seniors. Health Reports, 14, 21–34.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hill, T.D., Bradley, C.S., Dowd-Arrow, B. et al. Religious Attendance and the Social Support Trajectories of Older Mexican Americans. J Cross Cult Gerontol 34, 403–416 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-019-09386-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-019-09386-4