Table 2.
Measures of Religion and Spirituality Among White, Black, South Asian, American Indian and Hispanic/Latina Women in the SSSH
| Measures | White | Black | South Asian | Amer Indian | Hispanic/Latina | χ2/F | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | 1109 | 1005 | 449 | 404 | 635 | ||
| Religious and Spiritual Self-Identification | |||||||
| Which statement best describes you? | |||||||
| …spiritual and religious | 64.50 | 63.78 | 60.90 | 64.09 | 58.99 | *** | - |
| …spiritual but not religious | 28.27 | 31.14 | 6.97 | 20.45 | 26.32 | *** | - |
| …religious but not spiritual | 2.08 | 2.49 | 25.17 | 8.79 | 10.83 | *** | - |
| …neither religious nor spiritual | 5.15 | 2.59 | 6.97 | 6.73 | 3.86 | *** | - |
| Considers self religious or spiritual, “Very” | 41.21 | 46.07 | 24.72 | 34.65 | 24.72 | *** | 1–4a |
| Beliefs | |||||||
| Believe in life after death, “Definitely true” | 65.28 | 62.65 | 44.27 | 57.83 | 63.91 | *** | 1–5b |
| Believe that God exists, “Definitely true” | 73.23 | 86.34 | 64.57 | 76.59 | 93.00 | *** | 1–5b |
| God’s spirit dwells in my body, “Definitely true”† | 53.54 | 71.15 | 44.76 | 44.59 | 76.24 | *** | 1–5b |
| Religious/Spiritual Activity | |||||||
| Part of a religious congregation or community | 63.33 | 67.06 | 37.07 | 44.69 | 32.97 | *** | 0–1 |
| Religious attendance, “Once/week or more” | 44.50 | 44.28 | 27.80 | 20.13 | 34.50 | *** | 1–6c |
| Group prayer outside religious services, “Once/day or more” | 6.02 | 8.07 | 7.78 | 9.05 | 9.44 | *** | 1–7d |
| Pray alone, “Once/day or more” | 58.78 | 76.89 | 72.21 | 78.75 | 73.33 | *** | 1–7d |
| Pray for others when praying alone, “Once/day or more” | 53.81 | 65.24 | 60.23 | 66.50 | 69.25 | *** | 1–7d |
| Read scriptures, “Once/day or more” | 20.20 | 36.56 | 29.26 | 13.32 | 22.91 | *** | 1–7d |
| Meditate, “Once/day or more” | 28.13 | 41.44 | 33.56 | 27.18 | 38.97 | *** | 1–7d |
| Practice yoga ,”Once/day or more” | 3.63 | 2.69 | 21.23 | 1.50 | 2.96 | *** | 1–7d |
| Congregational Support‡ | |||||||
| Shown love by fellow congregants, “Very often” | 41.03 | 55.34 | 38.41 | 42.94 | 47.87 | *** | 1–4e |
| Religious community critical of you, “Very often” or “Fairly often” | 2.29 | 4.15 | 9.82 | 27.84 | 17.86 | *** | 1–4e |
| Religious community offers social services | 90.36 | 87.37 | 75.18 | 60.94 | 80.79 | *** | 0–1 |
| Family has used social service offered by religious community | 33.73 | 46.95 | 32.17 | 55.71 | 54.36 | *** | 0–1 |
| Relationship with God† | |||||||
| God gives me strength to do things I otherwise could not, “Definitely” | 58.44 | 76.52 | 58.47 | 57.22 | 86.00 | *** | 1–5b |
| God loves me unconditionally, “Definitely” | 65.45 | 79.45 | 52.62 | 55.15 | 83.17 | *** | 1–5b |
| God has come through for me, “Definitely” | 58.56 | 81.07 | 55.71 | 51.55 | 82.17 | *** | 1–5b |
| Relationship with God behind whole approach to life, “Definitely” | 43.36 | 60.69 | 45.71 | 45.88 | 75.97 | *** | 1–5b |
| Virtues | |||||||
| Before forgiving others, must promise not to repeat, “Strongly agree” | 1.65 | 1.89 | 7.80 | 8.86 | 15.46 | *** | 1–4f |
| Hard to forgive myself for things I’ve done wrong, “Strongly agree” | 6.64 | 6.27 | 10.98 | 11.87 | 14.76 | *** | 1–4f |
| I have forgiven those who have hurt me, “Strongly agree” | 20.83 | 28.36 | 33.11 | 25.71 | 47.53 | *** | 1–4f |
| Others have not forgiven me for what I have done, “Strongly agree” | 2.86 | 5.19 | 3.68 | 10.20 | 16.25 | *** | 1–4f |
| Gratitude scale | 4.89 | 4.90 | 4.75 | 4.72 | 4.83 | *** | 1–5g |
| Religious Coping† | |||||||
| R or S is involved in dealing with stressful situations, “Very much” | 58.49 | 75.91 | 48.64 | 50.13 | 64.71 | *** | 1–4h |
| Positive religious coping subscale | 2.78 | 3.14 | 2.88 | 3.00 | 3.59 | *** | 1–4i |
| Negative religious coping subscale | 1.22 | 1.44 | 1.47 | 1.76 | 1.78 | *** | 1–4i |
| Religious and spiritual struggles scale | 1.32 | 1.34 | 1.33 | 1.55 | 1.46 | *** | 1–4i |
| Religious and spiritual hope scale | 3.05 | 3.49 | 3.01 | 3.18 | 3.73 | *** | 1–4i |
| Spiritual Experiences | |||||||
| Non-theistic daily spiritual experience subscale | 3.76 | 3.84 | 3.71 | 3.56 | 3.58 | *** | 1–5j |
| Theistic daily spiritual experience subscale† | 4.17 | 4.50 | 4.11 | 4.23 | 4.71 | *** | 1–5j |
Notes: Individual items reported as percentages; scales reported as means. All significance tests control for age.
Congregational participants only
Not asked of atheists
1=Not at all, 2=Slightly, 3=Moderately, 4=Very
1=Definitely not true, 2=Tends not to be true, 3=Unsure, 4=Tends to be true, 5=Definitely true
1=Never, 2=Rarely, 3=Once/month, 4=2–3/month, 5=Once/week, 6=Several times/week
1=Never, 2=Several times/year, 3=Several times/month, 4=Once/week, 5=More than once/week, 6=Once/day, 7=Several times/day
1=Never, 2=Once/while, 3=Fairly often, 4=Very often
1=Strongly disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Agree, 4=Strongly agree
1=Strongly disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Neutral, 4=Agree, 5=Strongly agree
1=Not at all, 2=Not very much, 3=Somewhat, 4=Very much
1=Not at all, 2=Somewhat, 3=Quite a bit, 4=A great deal
1=Never, 2=Once in a while, 3=Some days, 4=Every day, 5=Many times a day