Aging, religiosity, and adjustment: a longitudinal analysis.

The relationships between church attendance, self-rated religiosity, and private prayer with aging are investigated with longitudinal data on older Mexican-Americans and Anglos. It is found that church attendance and practice of private prayer remained relatively stable over time (4 years) and that self-rated religiosity increased somewhat. Of the three measures only church attendance showed a significant effect on life satisfaction (net of other important predictors of life satisfaction) for both ethnic groups and at both points of observation. Among Anglos the effect of church attendance on life satisfaction increased significantly during the study interval.