Religious Affiliation, Active Participation, and Social Connectedness in Mainland China: A Trend Analysis of Older Adults, 2012-2023

Social isolation is a growing public health concern among older adults in rapidly aging China. Drawing on social capital theory and the congregational-network account of religion and well-being, we distinguish affiliation (identity) from active participation (practice), two dimensions of religious involvement rarely examined together outside Christian-majority Western contexts. Mainland China, where religion is diffused, largely non-congregational, and in a minority position, widens the gap between them and so offers a stringent test. We expected the two dimensions to be associated with social contact in opposite directions, affiliation with less frequent contact and at-least-monthly participation with more frequent contact, and expected both associations to be stronger among rural than urban older adults. Seven waves of the Chinese General Social Survey, 2012-2023, were analyzed (N = 24,358 adults aged ≥ 60). Primary outcomes were contact frequency with neighbors and friends; depressive symptoms and generalized social trust were exploratory secondary outcomes. Both dimensions were modeled simultaneously by ordinary least squares with sociodemographic covariates and correction for multiplicity. As expected, the two dimensions were associated with contact in opposite directions: affiliation with less frequent contact with neighbors and friends, and active participation with more frequent contact. All four associations survived correction; their directions were preserved and they remained statistically significant after adjustment for provincial fixed effects. Neither dimension was associated with the secondary outcomes, as a congregational-network mechanism would predict. The expected rural-urban difference was not formally supported: associations were significant among rural but not urban older adults, yet the religion-by-hukou interaction tests were uniformly non-significant. The two dimensions of religious involvement therefore show divergent associations with social connectedness among Chinese older adults, extending the attendance-centered pattern to a non-Christian, state-regulated context. They are not interchangeable indicators of religious social capital, and composite measures combining them risk canceling associations that run in opposite directions.