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Religiosity and religious attendance as factors in wellbeing and social engagement

ABSTRACT There is accumulating evidence that being an active member of a social community predicts health, wellbeing and even survival. I use data from an online survey to determine whether religious behavior has the same effect. The results suggest that religiosity and attendance at religious services most strongly affect engagement with the local community and through that the numbers of friends someone has, as well as the level of trust in the local community and bondedness with friends and family. However, they seem to have little direct impact on happiness or life satisfaction. Frequency of attendance at religious services (but not private prayer) is associated with a larger sympathy group and a greater sense of bonding to congregation members. I suggest that regular attendees may feel they can count on the emotional support of congregation members more readily than they can conventional friends and family because they interact with them more often.