Despite a recognition of religion as a resource for coping in later life, few studies have examined how religion is summoned to cope with the stressors of late-life immigration. Drawing upon data generated in a phenomenological study of the aging-out-place experience, this article presents a hermeneutic analysis of textual extracts addressing 10 Sri Lankan-born late-life immigrants’ Buddhist beliefs and practices, and how these beliefs and practices contributed to coping with immigration stressors. Four shared experiences facilitated through religious engagement were revealed: religious engagement as a source of purpose, making meaning of suffering and experiencing hope, non-attachment, and connecting to the past and the ethnoreligious community. Late-life immigrants drew on religious engagement to remain resolute amidst adversities, thus reinforcing the importance of culturally responsive milieus and services to support religion-focused coping. Findings are interpreted in relation to Pargament’s (1997) theory of religious coping.

Sex differences in religion are well known, with females generally being more religious than males, and shared environmental factors have been suggested to have a large influence on religiousness. Twins from opposite-sex (OS) and same-sex (SS) pairs may differ because of a dissimilar psycho-social rearing environment and/or because of different exposures to hormones in utero. We hypothesized that OS females may display more masculine patterns of religiousness and, vice versa, that OS males may display more feminine patterns. We used a web-based survey conducted in Denmark, which is a secular society. The survey included 2,997 twins aged 20–40 years, identified through the population-based Danish Twin Registry. We applied la Cour and Hvidt's adaptation of Fishman's three conceptual dimensions of meaning: Cognition, Practice, and Importance, and we used Pargament's measure of religious coping (RCOPE) for the assessment of positive and negative religious coping patterns. Differences between OS and SS twins were investigated using logistic regression for each sex. The analyses were adjusted for dependence within twin pairs. No significant differences in religiousness and religious coping were found for OS and SS twins except that more OS than SS females were members of the Danish National Evangelical Lutheran Church and fewer OS than SS females were Catholic, Muslim, or belonged to other religious denominations. Moreover, OS males at age 12 had higher rates of church attendance than did SS males. This study did not provide evidence for masculinization of female twins with male co-twins with regard to religiousness. Nor did it show any significant differences between OS and SS males except from higher rates of church attendance in childhood among males with female co-twins.

Objective: To examine: (1) daily religious and spiritual experiences among localized prostate cancer patients as compared to a national age and race-matched male sample; (2) cognitive-affective and clinical predictors of prostate cancer diagnosis-related increases in religiosity and spirituality; (3) short-term impact of daily religious and spiritual experiences on cancer recurrence worry.

Methods: Analyses of data from a longitudinal questionnaire study among patients (N = 254) diagnosed with localized prostate cancer and data from a random sample (N = 238) of respondents to the national General Social Survey.

Results: Compared to the national sample, prostate cancer patients reported higher levels of daily spiritual experiences. Patients with higher worry about prostate cancer and elevated levels of prostate-related symptoms around diagnosis were more likely to report a diagnosis-related increase in religiosity and spirituality. Positive benefits (reduced recurrence worry) of religious coping/practices were restricted to those patients with higher versus lower level of postdiagnosis increase in religiosity; patients not reporting postdiagnosis increases in religion who are not engaging in religious coping/practice adjusted equally well. Results suggest that the development of religious/spiritual interventions is premature.

Significance of results: This is the first prospective study to report on the prevalence and influence of daily spiritual and religious experiences among prostate cancer patients.