Church Attendance, Religious Activities, and the Life Satisfaction of Older Adults in Middletown, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT The central focus of this study is to examine the patterns and relationships which may or may not exist between religious attendance and activity, sex, health, income, and age with regard to the sense of subjective well-being as expressed by older Middletowners. Based on a random sample of 400 persons, 60 years of age and older, a multiple regression analysis reveals that three variables account for the vast majority of variance in life satisfaction. Those variables are: SUBJECTIVE HEALTH STATUS, SATISFACTION WITH INCOME, and CHURCH ATTENDANCE. For those three variables R = .4780; R2 = .2284. When all seven independent variables were included R = .4851; R2 = .2351. In addition, further analysis was undertaken to examine the interrelationships between the seven independent variables.