While religiosity is usually associated with lower death anxiety, holding doubts about one’s faith are associated with higher death anxiety. Using longitudinal data from the Religion, Aging, and Health Study (2001–2004), this study examines within-individual changes in religious doubt and death anxiety. Results from lagged dependent variable models suggest that compared to older adults who did not experience any doubt about their faith, those holding consistently high doubt or increasing or decreasing doubt reported greater death anxiety. Lingering religious doubt was associated with higher death anxiety among weekly religious attenders. Taken together, our findings suggest that being more assured in one’s faith and spiritual understanding may lead to a more peaceful experience when confronting thoughts about one’s own mortality, especially for older adults holding a stronger religious identity. We situate our findings within the literature on the “dark side” of religion and well-being in later life.

虽然宗教信仰通常与较低的死亡焦虑有关，但对自己的信仰持怀疑态度却与较高的死亡焦虑有关。使用宗教、老龄化和健康研究的纵向数据（2001-2004），这项研究考察了个人内部宗教怀疑和死亡焦虑的变化。滞后因变量模型的结果表明，与对自己的信仰没有任何怀疑的老年人相比，那些始终持有高度怀疑或怀疑增加或减少的人报告了更大的死亡焦虑。挥之不去的宗教怀疑与每周参加宗教活动的人较高的死亡焦虑有关。总而言之，我们的研究结果表明，在面对有关自己死亡的想法时，对自己的信仰和精神理解更有信心可能会带来更平静的体验，特别是对于拥有更强宗教认同的老年人来说。我们将文献中的发现定位于宗教和晚年福祉的“黑暗面”。