This research examined the relationship between religious attendance and loneliness, QoL, stress, and anxiety during a period of great adversity and social isolation: the COVID-19 pandemic. Results provided evidence of a positive relationship between in-person attendance and QoL. Loneliness was also shown to trend downward despite not reaching statistical significance.
In-person religious attendance has already been shown to have a beneficial effect on psychological health [1, 8, 9] and loneliness[10]. It has also been shown to encourage healthy coping behaviours [8, 9, 11]. Thus, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time of uncertainty and adversity, those who were able to attend in-person may have been able to cope with anxiety better than those who could not.
Remote religious practice, however, was found to be significantly associated with greater anxiety, even when concern over covid was controlled for. This result is similar to the results found in a study examining the relationship between religious involvement and anxiety among older adults in Ireland whereby frequency of prayer outside of religious service was found to be positively related to higher anxiety [26]. These results may be reflective of the social isolation experienced by older adults during the pandemic, meaning that anxiety was being driven by the social isolation that people who were using remote attendance experienced rather than the concern over the pandemic. Older adults were advised to avoid socialization and practice extreme isolation (Health Service Executive, 2020) which meant staying isolated from friends and family, restricted access to social activities and clubs, and even shopping at special times to avoid the general population.
These results may also be indicative of the missing social benefit found from attending in person [4, 10]. Older people experienced many barriers to in person social activities, including a religious community that could be interacted with in person.
It should also be noted that the sensitivity analysis, which separated participants who only attend in person and those who only attend remotely, held the same result that remote religious attendance is significantly positively related to greater anxiety. In person religious attendance became significantly related to lower anxiety and lower loneliness when those who used remote attendance were removed.
Data was also collected at various points throughout the pandemic, thus participants who were interviewed during higher levels of restrictions may have been feeling more anxious while at the same time being unable to attend in person religious service. Vaccinations were also not available for the entirety of data collection and participants who may not have had one when they were interviewed may have reported more anxiety.
What’s more, when those who attended religious services online at all were dropped, in person religious participation predicted significantly lower anxiety. When those who had attended in person were dropped, remote attendance was still associated with higher anxiety.
This study had several limitations. First, the use of cross-sectional survey data made measuring the change in religious practice and stress, loneliness, QoL, and anxiety over the COVID-19 pandemic impossible. Data was collected between January 2021 and January 2022, and while COVID was present through the entire time period, there were varying levels of lockdown restrictions throughout the year. Second, the use of single item responses to measure attendance rather than comprehensive scales. These items did not allow for the measurement of the complexities of religious participation such as spirituality, social benefit, or meaning and purpose. In addition, these measures fail to account for spirituality and intrinsic religious practice, which has been shown to have a positive effect on anxiety and stress [27].
This study also has several strengths. The use of a large nationally representative sample made for more accurate and generalizable results with smaller margin of error. Additionally, the use of data collected during a unique point in time; the COVID-19 pandemic period.
Future research should include comprehensive spirituality measures as a dependent variable to capture the complex intrinsic facets of religious practice and spirituality as these facets of religious practice may be more protective against negative mental health outcomes than simple attendance alone. Future research should also focus on social connectedness felt during in-person and remote religious practice as this study could only measure social connectedness.