“Electronic Church” 2.0: Are Virtual and In-Person Attendance Associated with Mental and Physical Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Abstract

Abstract Over the past four decades, studies have consistently shown that regular attendance at religious services is associated with better mental and physical health. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many congregations paused in-person religious services and moved their worship rituals online. The ways that churches have responded to the threat of infectious disease require new conceptualizations and operationalizations of religious attendance and novel comparisons of the causes and consequences of virtual and in-person attendance. Analyses of data collected from a national probability sample of Americans (n = 1,717) show that while in-person religious attendance is associated with better mental and physical health, virtual attendance is unrelated to both outcomes in fully adjusted models. Taken together, these findings suggest that the association between religious attendance and health during a global pandemic may be contingent on physical proximity and the nature of the social and experiential aspects of religious worship.