Department of Sociology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA.
School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2022 Jan 12;77(1):237-248. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbab034.
To investigate the association between religious involvement and cognitive functioning at the intersections of race-ethnicity and gender among midlife and older adults, and to determine if psychosocial factors help explain this relationship.
The sample included 14,037 adults aged 50+ from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We utilized measures from the HRS 2010 and 2012 Core interviews and Leave-Behind questionnaires and estimated our models using linear regression.
Compared to individuals who frequently attended religious services, infrequent religious service attendance was related to poorer cognitive functioning. Religiosity was inversely associated with cognitive functioning at baseline, but the relationship varied by race/gender subgroup. Greater religiosity was associated with better cognitive functioning among Black women, but lower cognitive functioning among White men and women. Psychosocial factors did little to explain the inverse association between religiosity and cognitive functioning.
Results suggest the association between religious involvement and cognitive functioning is varied and complex, and largely dependent on important social identities. The findings have important implications for investigating health-protective factors, like religious involvement, using an intersectional perspective.
探讨中年和老年人群中，宗教参与与种族-民族和性别交叉处认知功能之间的关系，并确定心理社会因素是否有助于解释这种关系。
该样本包括来自健康与退休研究（HRS）的 14037 名 50 岁以上成年人。我们利用 HRS 2010 年和 2012 年核心访谈和留置问卷中的测量数据，并使用线性回归估计模型。
与经常参加宗教服务的人相比，不经常参加宗教服务与认知功能较差有关。宗教信仰与认知功能在基线时呈负相关，但这种关系因种族/性别亚组而异。在黑人女性中，较高的宗教信仰与较好的认知功能相关，但在白人和女性中，较低的宗教信仰与较差的认知功能相关。心理社会因素几乎无法解释宗教信仰与认知功能之间的负相关关系。
研究结果表明，宗教参与与认知功能之间的关系是多样且复杂的，在很大程度上取决于重要的社会身份。这些发现对于从交叉视角研究宗教参与等保护健康的因素具有重要意义。
