Religious Service Attendance, Divorce, and Remarriage Among U.S. Women

Abstract

Religious participation can promote marital satisfaction and stability. However, current literature has mainly used cross-sectional data. We prospectively evaluated the associations between service attendance and either 1) divorce or separation; or 2) remarriage in the Nurses’ Health Study, a large prospective cohort study that consisted of US married female nurses, with repeated measures of service attendance and marital status. During 14 years of follow up, among 66,444 married nurses, frequent services attendance was associated with 50% lower risk of divorce (95% CI: 32%, 63%). Among divorced or separated women, frequent service attendance was not associated with likelihood of remarriage; however, among widowed women, frequent service attendance was associated with a 49% increased likelihood of remarriage (95% CI: 13%, 97%). The study provides evidence that frequent services attendance is associated with lower risk of becoming divorced, and increased likelihood of remarriage among widowed women, but not among divorced or separated women.