Effects of Religion and Purpose in Life on Elders’ Subjective Well-Being and Attitudes Toward Death

Although religiosity tends to help older people to cope with physical and social losses, not all studies find a significant association between religious involvement and well-being in old age. It might be that primarily the intrinsic rather than the extrinsic aspect of religiosity is responsible for the positive effect of religiosity on well-being. Using a sample of 103 community dwelling older adults (58+), multivariate regression analyses showed that purpose in life rather than extrinsic or intrinsic religious orientation was positively related to elders’ subjective well-being and negatively associated with fear of death and death avoidance. Moreover, extrinsic religious orientation had a positive effect on fear of death and death avoidance. Intrinsic religious orientation was positively related to approach acceptance of death. Frequency of shared spiritual activities and religious affiliation were unrelated to subjective well-being but positively related to death avoidance Monika Ardelt is affiliated with The Department of Sociology, University of Florida. Address correspondence to: Monika Ardelt, University of Florida, Department of Sociology, P.O. Box 117330, Gainesville, FL 32611-7330 (E-mail: [email protected]). The author would like to thank Carla Edwards, Anna Campbell, Adeen Woolverton, Nicolette Fertakis, Stephen Mayer, Dacia Caglin, Dana Federici, Amy Monk, Brad Tripp, and Elizabeth Brown for their help at various stages of the research project. The research was supported by a Brookdale National Fellowship, a grant from NIH/NIA (R03 AG14855-01), and a Research Initiation Project Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2001 Annual Meetings of the Gerontological Society of America in Chicago, IL. Journal of Religious Gerontology, Vol. 14(4) 2003 http://www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=J078  2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 10.1300/J078v14n04_04 55 and fear of death, respectively. Those findings might explain why some studies that examine the effects of religion on well-being in old age produce contradictory or inconclusive results. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: © 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]