Religiosity, adherence to traditional culture, and psychological well-being among African American elders

To expand our knowledge on the role of religiosity in African American culture, this study assessed the associations among religiosity, adherence to traditional African American culture, and psychological well-being. Regression models of psychological well-being, indexed with depressive symptoms and life satisfaction, were tested using a representative sample of 255 community-dwelling African American older adults in Hillsborough County, Florida. The direct effect of religiosity was found to be significant for both depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. A significant interaction between religiosity and adherence to African American culture was observed in the prediction of life satisfaction. Further analyses indicated that the positive effect of religiosity on life satisfaction was stronger in the more traditional group compared to that in the less traditional group. The results demonstrate that the benefits of religiosity do not exist uniformly across all African Americans but vary by the level of adherence to traditional culture.