We used classification analysis to examine change in religiosity among baby boomers from young adulthood to early old age and how religiosity transition patterns are associated with psychological well-being in later life. In addition, we tested the gender difference in the above association. We applied latent class and latent transition analysis to 392 baby boomers who participated in the Longitudinal Study of Generations in Wave-1 (1971) and Wave-9 (2016). We identified three classes describing religiosity at each wave (strongly religious, doctrinally religious, and weakly religious), and considered five types of change or stability in religious class membership from Wave-1 to Wave-9. Multiple regression with gender interactions revealed that men who stayed strongly religious over the period reported better psychological well-being compared to men who declined in their religiosity; no such pattern was found for women. Our findings suggest that maintaining strong religiosity over the life course was beneficial for baby boom men in later life.

我们使用分类分析来研究婴儿潮一代从青年时期到老年早期的宗教信仰变化，以及宗教信仰转变模式与晚年心理健康的关系。此外，我们还测试了上述关联中的性别差异。我们对参与第 1 波（1971 年）和第 9 波（2016 年）世代纵向研究的 392 名婴儿潮一代进行了潜在阶级和潜在过渡分析。我们确定了描述每一波宗教信仰的三个类别（强烈宗教、教义宗教和弱宗教），并考虑了从第一波到第九波宗教类别成员的五种类型的变化或稳定。性别互动的多元回归显示，与宗教信仰下降的男性相比，在此期间保持强烈宗教信仰的男性报告了更好的心理健康状况；女性没有发现这样的模式。我们的研究结果表明，在一生中保持强烈的宗教信仰对于婴儿潮时期男性的晚年有益。