Laura Upenieks
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Education
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Toronto, 2019
M.A., Sociology, University of Toronto, 2014
BSc., Psychology and Sociology with High Distinction, University of Toronto, 2013
Biography
Dr. Laura Upenieks received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2019 and joined the Baylor faculty in 2020. Her research interests are in religion and health, aging and the life course, and quantitative methods. She is currently conducting research focused on integrating life course models of health and social network analysis to better understand the relationship between religion and well-being, and on how life course inequalities shape health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Laura's recent research is published or forthcoming in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, British Journal of Sociology, Social Problems, Social Science Research, Research on Aging, Review of Religious Research, and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Laura is an incoming editorial board member of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
Recent Publications
Upenieks, Laura, and Brendan M. Ryan. Forthcoming. “Good, Good Enough, or Great? Social and Performance Predictors of Collegiate Golf Participation among Northern California Youth.” International Journal of Golf Sciences.
Schafer, Markus H., and Laura Upenieks. Forthcoming . “On Religious Ambiguity: Childhood Family Religiosity and Adult Flourishing in a Twin Sample.” Social Science Research https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2023.102949
Upenieks, Laura, Brendan Ryan, and Chris Knoester. Forthcoming. “Better to Have Played than Not Played? Youth Sport Participation, Reasons for Dropout, and Mental Health in Adulthood.” Sociology of Sport.
Upenieks, Laura and Christopher G. Ellison. Forthcoming. “Religious Doubt and Mental Well-Being in Later Life: Is Humility a Protective Resource?” Psychology and Theology.
Upenieks, Laura. Forthcoming. “Are Religious People Any Happier? Probing the Divine Relationship and Extrinsic Religiosity and the Role of Education and Income.” Journal of Religion and Health.
Upenieks, Laura, Blake Victor Kent, Megha Nagaswami, Yue Gu, Alka M. Kanaya, and Alexandra W. Shields. Forthcoming. “Do Religion and Spirituality Buffer the Effect of a Childhood Trauma on Depressive Symptoms? Examination of a South Asian Cohort.” Journal of Religion and Health.
Upenieks, Laura and Christos Orfanidis*. Forthcoming. “Perceived Accountability to God, the Religious Role, and Psychological Well-Being.” Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.
Upenieks, Laura, and Terrence D. Hill. 2023. “Christian Nationalism, Religious Struggles, and the Structural Amplification of Emotional Distress.” Social Science Quarterly https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13327
Upenieks, Laura and Rebecca Bonhag. 2023. “Masculine God Imagery and Sense of Life Purpose: Examining the Moderating Role of America’s “Four Gods.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12881
Bierman, Alex, Laura Upenieks (equal co-authorship) and Yeonjung Lee. 2023. “Mattering and Self-Esteem as Bulwarks Against the Consequences of Financial Strain for Loneliness in Later Life: Differentiating Between- and Within-Person Processes.” Research on Aging https://doi.org/10.1177/01640275231221326
Upenieks, Laura, Christos Orfanidis*, and Terrence D. Hill. 2023. "The Nature of Power: Elaborating the Association between Divine Control and Mental Health." Society and Mental Health https://doi.org/10.1177/21568693231201990
Upenieks, Laura, and Scott Schieman. 2023. “Divine Compensation? Gender, Religiosity, and the Link between Feeling Underpaid and Psychological Distress.” Review of Religious Research https://doi.org/10.1177/0034673X231213950
Upenieks, Laura, Terrence D. Hill, and Christos Orfanidis*. 2023. “Crisis of Faith and Sleep Quality in the United States: A Literal Dark Night of the Soul?" Journal of Religion and Health https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01958-6
Upenieks, Laura, Brendan M. Ryan, and Howie M. Carson. 2023. “When a Bad Day at the Golf Course is a Bad Day at the Office: Occupational Stressors, Institutional Supports, and the Mental Health of NCAA Golf Coaches.” Frontiers in Sport and Active Living https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1286965
Andre, Nick*, Laura Upenieks, and Rebecca Bonhag. 2023. “Does Religious Service Attendance Condition the Link between Relationship Status and Mattering to Others? Evidence from the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Review of Religious Research 65(3):344-73.
Upenieks, Laura, Christopher G. Ellison, and Neal M. Krause. 2023. “Trust the Lord with All Your Heart: The Role of Education in the Relationship Between Trust in God and Well-Being in Later Life.” Mental Health, Religion, and Culture 26(7): 704-20.
Andersson, Matthew A., and Laura Upenieks. 2023. “‘How I Was Brought Up’: A Life-Course Approach to the Stress of Higher Status.” Sociological Spectrum 43(2-3):53-71.
Upenieks, Laura, Christopher G. Ellison, and Neal M. Krause. 2023. “To Err is Human, to Forgive, Divine: Religious Doubt, Psychological Well-Being and the Moderating Role of Divine Forgiveness.” Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging https://doi.org/10.1080/15528030.2023.2262406
Holleman, Anna, Laura Upenieks, and David E. Eagle. “Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Seminarians: Personal Experiences of Trauma and Selection into Pastoral Ministry.” Journal of Psychology and Theology https://doi.org/10.1177/00916471231206361
Upenieks, Laura, Elizabeth M. Bounds, Karen K. Melton, Perry Glanzer, and Sarah A. Schnitker. 2023. “Attachment to God, Contingent Self-Worth, and Mental Health Outcomes in Collegiate Athletes.” Journal of Religion and Health https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01907-3
Bierman, Alex, Laura Upenieks, and Yeonjung Lee. 2023. “Consequences of Financial Strain for Subjective Experiences of Increases in Cost of Living among Older Adults During Rapid Inflation.” Socius 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231231197034
Bierman, Alex E., Laura Upenieks, and Yeonjung Lee. 2023. “Perceptions of Increases in Cost of Living and Psychological Distress During a Period of Rapid Inflation.” Journal of Aging and Health https://doi.org/10.1177/08982643231195924
Louie, Patricia, Terrence D. Hill, and Laura Upenieks. 2023. “Do Early Life Traumas Buffer or Amplify the Impact of Cumulative Pandemic Stress on Anger?” Advances in Life Course Research 58, 100576.
Upenieks, Laura, and Xi Zhu*. 2023. “Life Course Religious Attendance and Cognitive Health at Midlife: Exploring Gendered Contingencies.” Research on Aging https://doi.org/10.1177/01640275231188998
Clifton, Triston*, Mackenzie Brewer, and Laura Upenieks. 2023. “Religious Affiliation and Debt Among U.S. Households.” Social Science Research 115, 102911.
Upenieks, Laura, and David E. Eagle. 2023. “Divine Struggles Among Those Doing God’s Work: A Longitudinal Assessment Predicting Depressive Symptoms and Burnout and the Role of Social Support in United Methodist Clergy.” Sociology of Religion https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srad014
Upenieks, Laura, and Neal M. Krause. 2023. “Religious/Spiritual Pathways between Practical Wisdom and Depression: Testing the Importance of the Divine Relationship in Later Life.” Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging 35(3):227-50.
Upenieks, Laura. 2023. “Spiritually Well, Mentally Well? Early Life Religious Antecedents of Mental Well-Being among United Methodist Clergy in North Carolina.” Journal of Religion and Health 62:2656-85.
Upenieks, Laura, Terrence D. Hill, and Joanne Ford-Robertson. 2023. “Religion and Pandemic Weight Gain: A Refuge from the Storm?” Journal of Psychology and Theology 51(3):392-411.
Upenieks, Laura, Alex Bierman, and Yeonjung Lee. 2023. “Divine Relations as a Basis of Subjective Social Status During Later-Life: Direct and Moderating Effects.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12851
Seto, Christopher H.*, and Laura Upenieks. 2023. “Under God and Under Threat: Christian Nationalism and Conspiracy Beliefs as Links Between Political Orientation and Gun Ownership.” Justice Quarterly https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2023.2197482
Bonhag, Rebecca, and Laura Upenieks. 2023. “Working Only for the Weekend? How Workplace Social Connections Impact Worker’s Sense of Mattering and Mental Health.” Society and Mental Health https://doi.org/10.1177/21568693231165786
Upenieks, Laura, Terrence D. Hill, Gabriel Acevedo, and Harold G. Koenig. 2023. “‘Electronic Church’ 2.0: Are Virtual and In-Person Attendance Associated with Mental and Physical Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Sociology of Religion 84(3):292-323.
Upenieks, Laura, Scott Schieman, and Christopher G. Ellison. 2023. “Does Religiosity Buffer the Adverse Mental Health Effects of Work-Family Strain? Examining the Role of an Overlooked Resource.” Review of Religious Research https://doi.org/10.1177/0034673X231171788
Upenieks, Laura, Blake Victor Kent (equal first authorship), Oluwaseyi Isehunwa, Ying Zhang, Alka Kanaya, and Alexandra Shields. 2023. “Religion/Spirituality and Risk of Prevalent Hypertension across Ethnic Cohorts in the United States.” Annals of Behavioral Medicine 57(8):649-61.
Louie, Patricia, Laura Upenieks, and Terrence D. Hill. 2023. “Cumulative Pandemic Stressors, Psychosocial Resources, and Psychological Distress: An Initial Test of a Pandemic Stress Process.” Society and Mental Health 13(3):245-60.
Hill, Terrence, Laura Upenieks, Julia Wolf, Lynne Cossman, and Christopher Ellison. 2023. “Do Religious Struggles Mediate the Association between Neighborhood Disorder and Health in the United States?” Journal of Religion and Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01780-0
Upenieks, Laura, Terrence D. Hill, and James E. Robertson. 2023. “Picturing You: God Images, Gun Ownership, and Empowerment in the United States.” Social Science Quarterly 104:92-109.
Upenieks, Laura and Christopher G. Ellison. 2023. “Changes in Religiosity and Reliance on God During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Protective Role for Mental Health Under Conditions of Financial Strain?” Review of Religious Research 64:853-81.
DeAngelis, Reed*, Laura Upenieks, and Patricia Louie. 2023. “Religious Involvement and Allostatic Resilience: Findings from the Nashville Stress and Health Study.” Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01505-1
Upenieks, Laura. 2023. “Uncertainty in Faith, Fear of Death? Transitions in Religious Doubt and Death Anxiety in Later Life.” Journal of Death and Dying 87(3):814-37.
Upenieks, Laura, and Patricia A. Thomas. 2023. “Matters of the Heart: Childhood Abuse, Religious Transitions, and Cardiovascular Risk over the Life Course.” Journal of Aging and Health 35(5-6):405-18.
Upenieks, Laura. 2023. “With You Until the End of the Age? A Longitudinal Consideration of Change in Religiosity and Loneliness in Later Life.” Research on Aging 45(3-4):299-391.
Upenieks, Laura, Patricia Louie, and Terrence D. Hill. 2023. “Welcome to the Dark Side: The Role of Religious/Spiritual Struggles in the Black-White Mental Health Paradox.” Society and Mental Health 13(2):151-68.
Upenieks, Laura and Joanne Ford-Robertson. 2023. “Childhood Abuse, Goal-Striving Stress, and Self-Esteem: An Explanatory Role for Perceptions of Divine Control?” Journal of Religion and Health 62:906-31.
Upenieks, Laura. 2023. “Unpacking the Relationship between Prayer and Anxiety: A Consideration of Prayer Types and Expectations in the United States.” Journal of Religion and Health 62:1810-31.
Schafer, Markus H., and Laura Upenieks. 2023. “Do Sexual Expectations Matter for Older Men and Women? Anticipated Sexual Futures and Late-Life Sexuality over Two Decades.” The Gerontologist 63(2):240-50.
Zhu, Xi*, and Laura Upenieks. 2023. “Age Differences in Mental Health During the COVID19 Pandemic: Assessing the Buffering Role of Attachment to God.” Journal of Aging and Health 35(9): 607-22.
Upenieks, Laura. 2023. “The Assurance of Things Hoped For, The Conviction of Things Not Seen: Racial Differences in the Effects of Changes in Religiosity and Hope in Later Life.” Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging 35(2):112-138.
Upenieks, Laura, Rebecca Bonhag*, and Amanda McGowan*. 2023. “Religious Doubt and Depression in Later Life: Gender Differences in the Buffering Role of a Supportive Pastoral Relationship.” International Journal of Psychogeriatrics https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610222000448
Upenieks, Laura. 2023. “Spiritual Support and Well-Being in Later Life: Revisiting the Role of God-Mediated Control.” Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging 35(2):169-92.