Functional Limitations and Religious Service Attendance in Later Life: Barrier and/or Benefit Mechanism?

OBJECTIVES: Why do some studies report a negative relationship between religious service attendance and functional limitations? Two possible mechanisms, the health benefit mechanism and the functional barrier mechanism, were systematically examined. METHODS: With 2 waves of a national probability sample of adults aged 60 years and older, this research used structural equation models to estimate the influence of these 2 mechanisms. RESULTS: Results indicated that functional limitations were associated with less frequent religious service attendance at the same wave, largely because of the barrier mechanism; no support was found for the benefit mechanism. Neither mechanism was significant over time. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that there is a temporal and salient decline in social activities such as religious service attendance when lower body functional limitations are highest. However, long-term engagement in religious service attendance is not predicted by baseline functional limitations, indicating that there are not long-term declines in attendance because of higher levels of functional limitations.