“See You Sunday?” Effects of Attending a Specific Weekend Religious Service on Emotional Well‐Being: A State/Trait Analysis of the SoulPulse Study

Abstract

Most studies of religious service attendance and emotional well‐being are only capable of evaluating “trait” aspects of religious attendance, or long‐term patterns and habits that form an attendance routine. Methodological limitations make it difficult to capture the immediate (i.e., “state”) effects of attending a specific religious worship service. Using the SoulPulse Study, a 2‐week microlongitudinal study consisting of two daily cell phone surveys, we move beyond this limitation by examining trait attendance, state attendance, and the interaction of the two on 10 emotional/affective outcome variables. We find that both state attendance and trait attendance are associated with well‐being, though state attendance performs more consistently across the 10 positive and negative emotion items. Leveraging Iannaccone's concept of “religious capital,” we present evidence in state × trait interaction models that only those who have high trait levels of attendance are able to capture the emotional benefit of state attendance. This study informs the broader literature on religious attendance and well‐being by providing evidence that religious attendance can be considered a “practice” that must first be internalized as a set of familiar routines prior to being activated for personal well‐being.