Premium
Social Involvement in Religious Institutions and God‐Mediated Control Beliefs: A Longitudinal Investigation
Author(s) -
KRAUSE NEAL M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal for the scientific study of religion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1468-5906
pISSN - 0021-8294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5906.2007.00375.x
Subject(s) - control (management) , social control , social institution , social psychology , longitudinal study , sociology , psychology , social science , medicine , economics , management , pathology
This study examines the relationships among race, education, formal as well as informal involvement in the church, and God‐mediated control. Formal involvement in the church was assessed by the frequency of attendance at worship services, Bible study groups, and prayer groups. Informal involvement was measured with an index of spiritual support provided by fellow church members. Data from a nationwide longitudinal survey of older people suggest that both formal and informal church involvement tend to sustain feelings of God‐mediated control over time. The findings further reveal that compared to older whites, older African Americans are more likely to have stronger feelings of God‐mediated control at the baseline survey and older blacks are more likely to sustain their sense of God‐mediated control over time. In contrast, the data suggest that education is not significantly related to feelings of God‐mediated control.