The proposed research aims to investigate patterns, measurement models, and predictors of religious involvement among older black and white Americans.
These aims will be accomplished through a research plan organized around four interrelated objectives. Specific objectives include (1) describing patterns of religious involvement in older blacks and whites and identifying predictors of religiosity, with a substantive focus on racial, age, gender, and other social-structural differences; (2) confirming multidimensional measurement models of religious involvement in different groups of black and white respondents and examining differences in model structure across racial, regional, and denominational classifications; (3) analyzing patterns, models, and predictors of religious involvement across three-generational families; and, (4) performing panel analyses of religious involvement. In accomplishing each of these objectives, special attention will be given to multidimensional measurement of religious involvement, higher-order analyses which control for the effects of relevant exogenous variables, and the confirmation of findings across racial, age, gender, and other social and religious categories. In conducting the proposed research, five datasets will be used. These include the National Survey of Black Americans, the Three Generation Family Study, the National Survey of Black Americans Panel Study, the Americans' Changing Lives Study, and the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey. Each of these surveys is based on large, national probability samples, each contains sizeable numbers of black respondents, and each dataset includes a variety of indicators of organizational, nonorganizational, and subjective religious involvement. In analyzing these data, a number of multivariate statistical procedures will be used, including multiple regression, logistic regression, analysis of variance and covariance, and several procedures based on covariance-structure-modeling. These include confirmatory factor analysis, structural-equation-modeling, and factorial-invariance analysis.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01AG010135-01A1
Application #
3122090
Study Section
Human Development and Aging Subcommittee 3 (HUD)
Project Start
1992-09-25
Project End
1995-08-31
Budget Start
1992-09-25
Budget End
1993-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1992
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Department
Type
Schools of Social Work
DUNS #
791277940
City
Ann Arbor
State
MI
Country
United States
Zip Code
48109
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Levin, J S; Wickramasekera, I E; Hirshberg, C (1998) Is religiousness a correlate of absorption? Implications for psychophysiology, coping, and morbidity. Altern Ther Health Med 4:72-6
Levin, J S; Chatters, L M (1998) Religion, health, and psychological well-being in older adults: findings from three national surveys. J Aging Health 10:504-31
Levin, J S; Taylor, R J (1997) Age differences in patterns and correlates of the frequency of prayer. Gerontologist 37:75-88
Levin, J S; Larson, D B; Puchalski, C M (1997) Religion and spirituality in medicine: research and education. JAMA 278:792-3
Levin, J S; Glass, T A; Kushi, L H et al. (1997) Quantitative methods in research on complementary and alternative medicine. A methodological manifesto. NIH Office of Alternative Medicine. Med Care 35:1079-94
Levin, J S (1996) How prayer heals: a theoretical model. Altern Ther Health Med 2:66-73
Levin, J S (1996) How religion influences morbidity and health: reflections on natural history, salutogenesis and host resistance. Soc Sci Med 43:849-64
Levin, J S; Cole, T R (1996) ""Song of ourselves"": a quantitative history of American autobiographies. Gerontologist 36:448-53

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