Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of prayer and attachment to God on psychological well-being (PWB) in later life. Method: Using data from two waves of the nationwide Religion, Aging, and Health Survey, we estimate the associations between frequency of prayer and attachment to God at baseline with cross-wave changes in three measures of PWB: self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction. Results: Prayer does not have a main effect on PWB. Secure attachment to God is associated with improvements in optimism but not self-esteem or life satisfaction. The relationship between prayer and PWB is moderated by attachment to God; prayer is associated with improvements in PWB among securely attached individuals but not those who are insecurely attached to God. Discussion: These findings shed light on the complex relationship between prayer and PWB by showing that the effects of prayer are contingent upon one’s perceived relationship with God.

We analyze a sample of older U.S. adults with religious backgrounds in order to examine the relationships among two types of divine forgiveness and three indicators of psychological well-being (PWB) as well as the moderating role of attachment to God. Results suggest that (a) feeling forgiven by God and transactional forgiveness from God are not associated with changes in PWB over time, (b) secure attachment to God at baseline is associated with increased optimism and self-esteem, (c) feeling forgiven by God and transactional forgiveness from God are more strongly associated with increased PWB among the securely attached, and (d) among the avoidantly attached, PWB is associated with consistency in one’s beliefs, that is, a decreased emphasis on forgiveness from God. Findings underscore the importance of subjective beliefs about God in the lives of many older adults in the United States.

Much of the survey research on religion/spirituality and mental health in the U.S. must be assumed to capture stable respondent traits when it is possible temporary states are actually being recorded. The smartphone-based experience sampling method (ESM) in the SoulPulse Study, which collected data twice a day for two weeks, allows an opportunity to examine this problem further by assessing state (single moment) and trait (two-week average) scores of daily spiritual experiences (DSE) as moderators of a daily stressor checklist, depressive symptoms, and flourishing (a well-being indicator that addresses happiness, life satisfaction, meaning and purpose, virtue, close social relationships, etc.). Findings indicate robust direct associations between stressors, DSE, and well-being, as well as substantial support for the moderating role of state and trait daily spiritual experiences. The study: 1) demonstrates that DSE may serve as a buffer against daily stressors at both the trait and state levels, 2) provides further evidence for flourishing as a holistic indicator of well-being, and 3) indicates that ESM methodologies can add to our understanding of human well-being.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with many aspects of health and well-being, including body mass index (BMI). Most research in this area has focused on objective indicators of SES such as education and income, but recent work suggests that subjective social status (SSS) is also important. This study contributes to a growing body of research on SSS and BMI. Data from Waves I and IV the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a study of 14,780 individuals followed from adolescence to young adulthood, were analyzed. Analyses showed that (a) SSS was inversely associated with BMI among young adults, (b) objective SES in both adulthood and early life explained about half of this relationship, (c) SSS appeared to offer a partial explanation for the association between SES (in both adulthood and early life) and BMI, (d) health behaviors, psychological characteristics, self-rated health, and perceived stress explained part of the relationship between SSS and BMI after controlling for SES and other covariates, and (e) SSS had a residual association with BMI that was not accounted for by any of the variables in the full model. This work shows that SSS is important because it (a) has an independent association with BMI net of SES, which suggests that it captures unique aspects of social and economic conditions missed by objective indicators of SES and (b) may help link SES with BMI through perceptions of one's place in the status hierarchy of society. (PsycINFO Database Record

Existing organizational research overlooks divine attachment as a “personal characteristic” relevant to work. We argue that secure attachment to God as an internal working model can function as a “secure base” from which individuals form meaningful attachments to their workplace and work position. We further hypothesize that a sense of vocational calling (i.e., a belief that God calls individuals to particular work settings or jobs) will mediate the relationship between secure God attachment and positive work attitudes. We test these hypotheses by analyzing data from the Baylor Religion Survey 2010, a random sample of US adults. Findings demonstrate that secure attachment to God positively relates to affective organizational commitment and job satisfaction. As hypothesized, vocational calling also mediates a large proportion of these relationships. Implications of our findings are discussed in conclusion.