Perceived maternal religious value similarity and church attendance: their potential stress response and psychological effects

Abstract

Research has suggested that parental church attendance/values and similarity to parental religious values may affect cardiovascular health. This project compared adult groups that had religious values either similar or dissimilar to their mothers' or had mothers who attended places of worship frequently vs infrequently. Group differences were found in T-helper cell percent, T-suppressor cell percent, systolic blood pressure, VLDL toxicity-preventing activity, age, anger temperament, education, number of relatives with ulcers and spontaneous crying. Results generally supported the hypothesis that individuals who had religious values similar to their mothers' or whose mothers attended worship regularly had indices suggestive of less cardiovascular risk than the comparison groups. This article is a preliminary report meant to encourage research with larger and better defined groups. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.