Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 50, Issue 5 P236-P246, Copyright © 1995 by The Gerontological Society of America
Religiosity and self-esteem among older adults
N Krause
School of Public Health, University of Michigan, USA.
The relationship between religiosity and self-esteem in later life was
examined in this study. Previous research in this area provides conflicting
findings. Some studies indicate that greater religious involvement tends to
bolster feelings of self-worth, whereas others suggest that more religious
involvement is associated with less positive self-evaluations. A new
perspective is tested in the present study which predicts that there may be
a nonlinear U-shaped relationship between these measures. More
specifically, it is proposed that self-esteem is highest among elderly
people with the greatest, as well as the least, amount of religious
commitment and lowest among older adults with only modest levels of
religiosity. The data tend to largely support this new view. However,
feelings of self-worth tend to be lowest for those with very little
religious commitment rather than those with moderate levels of religious
involvement.
