Differences in Religious Attendance Among Disabled and Nondisabled Early and Early Midlife Adults

Abstract

In general, disabled people value religion as much as people without disability, but do not attend religious services as often. Empirical evidence to date does not robustly examine whether this pattern is applicable even when accounting for possible differences in religiosity among disabled and nondisabled people. Using data from the 2011−2019 National Survey for Family Growth, we examine whether religious affiliation and attendance vary across disability statuses and by importance of religious affiliation among early and early midlife adults. We find that among those who identify as religious, disabled people value their religious affiliation as much as people without disability. Despite this similarity in religious affiliation, levels of religious attendance were lower among disabled than nondisabled people who identified their religious affiliation as very important. Results underscore the need to eliminate ableist barriers that discourage or prevent religious disabled people from accessing the social resources offered by religious congregations.