Stability and change of religiosity among baby boomers in adulthood: Associations with familism over time

Abstract

While it is commonly understood that familism is influenced by religiosity, less is known about how religiosity between young adulthood and midlife is related to the trajectory of familism from midlife over the later life course. In this study, we identified a multidimensional typology of religiosity among baby boomers in young adulthood and midlife, explored how membership in this religious typology changed from young adulthood to midlife, and examined how transition patterns of religiosity were associated with familism over time. We used data from a sample of 471 baby boomers (mean age 19 years in 1971) from the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG), Wave-1 (1971) through Wave-8 (2005). Using latent class and latent transition analysis, we identified three latent religiosity classes in Wave-1 (1971) and Wave-3 (1988): strongly religious, weakly religious, and privately religious, and identified nine transition patterns of religiosity from you between these waves from young adulthood to midlife. Using latent growth curve analysis (Wave-3 to Wave-8), we found that respondents who remained strongly or privately religious or whose religiosity increased had higher initial levels of familism (Wave-3) compared to those who stayed in the weakly religious class. However, the gap in familism across religiosity transition patterns decreased over time up to late middle age. Our findings indicate that while religiosity was positively associated with familism, its impact weakened over time possibly due to change in the centrality of family life and societal factors.

Keywords: Adulthood; Baby boomers; Familism; Life course; Religiosity.