Religion and spirituality in Latino life in the United States.

Abstract

This chapter summarizes information on religion and spirituality in the lives of Latinos. Latino is a label for the Spanish-speaking population of the United States, either born in the United States or descendants of persons from Latin America or the Hispanic Caribbean; they are also referred to as Hispanics. Some authors reserve the term Latino for persons of Latin American descent born in the United States, which fails to account for immigrants and mixed immigrant and first-generation families. This chapter reviews literature and selected studies on religiousness and spirituality among Latinos. The aim will be to construct an integrative, descriptive paradigm to identify what is known and what is important to know in terms of the implications of religiousness and spirituality for the health and well-being of Latinos. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)