Religiosity and Aging

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between age and religiosity through an analysis of responses made by three adult age groups to items concerning religion. A corollary interest was to determine if there were decided similarities or differences in the responses between males and females in these three age groups. A specially prepared questionnaire was administered to 150 Ss in the Hagerstown, Maryland area who had been drawn from three age groups. Ss ranged in age from 21 to 94 years. An analysis of variance was performed on the total religiosity scores to determine if there were significant differences in the religious attitudes of the youthful, middle-aged, and older Ss. The analysis revealed significant differences based on age. The analysis, however, did not reveal any significant differences in the responses of the male and female Ss. A comparison of the mean religiosity scores of the three age groups indicated that there was a significant relationship between greater religiosity and increased age.