Effects Of Religious Attendance Research Articles

Effect of religious attendance on the middle-aged worker’s wage in the United States: a possible causal connection

ABSTRACT The current study explores the possibility of a causal connection between a worker’s religious attendance and wage. Numerous studies in the literature have already demonstrated a positive correlation between these two variables. For effective policy applications, however, it is necessary to find out whether there exists a causal connection between them. The study uses the US data and tests the hypothesis that religious attendance of middle-aged workers has a positive causal effect on their wages. Following an instrumental variable approach, the current study tests this hypothesis and demonstrates that religious attendance is very much likely to have a causal effect on middle-aged workers’ earnings. This has important policy implications and thus deserves further attention from researchers and policymakers.

The impact of religious involvement on trust, volunteering, and perceived cooperativeness: evidence from two British panels

Abstract Does religious involvement make people more trusting and prosocial? Considering conflicting theories and mixed prior evidence, we subject this question to a stringent test using large-scale, representative data from the British Household Panel Survey (1991–2009, N ≈ 26,000) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2021, N ≈ 80,000). We employ cross-lagged panel models with individual fixed effects to account for time-invariant confounders and reverse causality—two issues that have haunted earlier research. We find that frequency of religious service attendance on average has a positive impact on generalized trust, volunteering, and perceived cooperativeness. Other indicators of religious involvement have weaker effects. We also find variation across religious traditions: the effects of religious attendance are mostly positive for Anglicans and other Protestants, but weaker and mostly statistically insignificant for Catholics, Hindus, and the unaffiliated, and even negative for Muslims when the outcome is perceived cooperativeness. Our findings are robust to alternative model set-ups and hold up after accounting for neighbourhood religious composition, respondent and interviewer ethnicity, and other potential moderators and confounders. Altogether, our study shows that religious involvement can foster prosocial behaviours and attitudes, although in our study this effect is largely restricted to religious service attendance and majority religions.

The Effects of Religious Attendance and Evangelical Identification on Media Perception and Political Knowledge

AbstractScholars have shown that religious activity can prepare individuals for civic activity by endowing them with the skills and motivation to engage in politics. Others, however, assert that religious dogmatism may lead to disengagement with the secular world and politics more generally. These two perspectives have resulted in contradictory findings on a key aspect of civic ability: political knowledge. I argue that while religiosity may indeed increase individuals’ engagement in a wide array of political activities, including some aspects of political knowledge, religious commitment decreases the ability to acquire accurate information about certain types of political facts. This argument is tested with a number of national surveys, and I find that while religion has a mixed effect on knowledge of general political structures and actors, it increases the perception of media hostility, which leads to lower levels of political knowledge about policy-specific surveillance information.

Dissecting the act of god: an exploration of the effect of religiosity on economic activity

Abstract This research explores whether religiosity has a persistent effect on economic outcomes. We follow a three-step analysis. First, we use a sample of migrants in the United States to establish that religiosity in the country of origin has a lasting effect on the religiosity of migrants. Second, by exploiting variation in the inherited component of religiosity of migrants and controlling only for a baseline set of controls, we uncover a causal link between several aspects of religiosity and income level. The empirical findings of the second step suggest that i) church attendance has a positive impact on income; and ii) stronger faith is associated with a higher income. Finally, we augment the set of controls included in the measure of inherited religiosity in order to capture the effects of social capital, education, and of traits conducive to income growth. When controlling for social capital, the effect of religious attendance on economic outcomes vanishes, and when controlling for the presence of traits conducive to growth, the effect of intensity of faith vanishes as well. We therefore conclude that when properly accounting for unobservables, religiosity does not affect per capita income.

Which is greener: secularity or religiosity? Environmental philanthropy along religiosity spectrum

Using a large, nationally representative Canadian survey (N = 12,922), this paper investigates how religiosity associates with environmental philanthropy. Based on the degree of religiosity, the population is divided into five mutually exclusive segments of very religious, average religiosity, nominal affiliate, unchurched believer, and strictly secular. The analysis shows that the individuals identified as very religious contribute the least amount of money to environmental causes, while the unchurched believers are the most generous. The investigation also shows that among various dimensions of religiosity, only religious attendance is statistically significantly associated with environmental philanthropy. The effect of religious attendance is, however, negative for monetary contribution and positive for volunteerism. Finally, the contribution of money to religious organizations negatively associates with environmental giving, while donation to secular causes predicts a higher level of monetary giving to environmental organizations. Various implications are discussed.

Effect of religious attendance on years of schooling in the USA

ABSTRACTUsing data from the USA, the study demonstrates that an individual's completed years of schooling later in life is positively related to his/her frequency of religious attendance during youth. Using the propensity score matching technique, the study shows that this relationship is causal. This conclusion remains valid for youths of different religious and demographic groups considered in this study. This finding has important policy implications, and thus it calls for attention of researchers, educationists and policy-makers.

The Effects of Religious Attendance on Immigrant Political Participation in Australia

Although prior research suggests that religious attendance matters in the formation of citizens’ political life, few studies have examined the political significance of religious attendance for immigrants in Australia and how it influences immigrant political participation in Australia. This article analyzes the 2013 Australian Election Study Data using logit models. The analysis supports previous research which shows that religious attendance influences political participation among immigrants in different ways. However, the results are somewhat complex. The article also finds that religious faith is directly linked to political participation. It identifies a clear divide between those who have a religious faith and those who do not, and this divide influences political participation among immigrants. The findings suggest that religion has important implications for understanding immigrant political participation and for future research on religion and politics in Australia more broadly.

Detrimental Effects of Discrimination on Mental Health in Asian Americans: Counteracting Roles of Religious Involvement

Few studies have examined the role of religious involvement as a potential protective factor in the mental health of Asian Americans. Using the first national sample from the National Latino and Asian American Study (2002–2003), this study explored the direct effect of religious attendance on the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder and self-rated mental health in Asian Americans (n = 2,095), above and beyond that of discrimination and acculturation factors. Hierarchical regression models associated (a) gender and discrimination with generalized anxiety disorder, and (b) gender, employment status, English proficiency, and discrimination with self-rated mental health. Including religious attendance added explanatory power to both models, indicating its influence on mental health. There was no interaction between religious attendance and discrimination, suggesting a suppressing rather than stress-buffering effect of religious attendance. These patterns suggest future investigation in the relationship between religious involvement and mental health in relation to subcultural differences among Asian Americans.

The Effects of Religious Attendance and Obesity on Health by Race/Ethnicity

ObjectivesThe objectives of this paper are to examine the effects of religion and obesity on health and determine how the relationship varies by racial/ethnic groups with data from the Panel Study of American Race and Ethnicity (PS-ARE). MethodsUsing ordinal logistic regression, the effects of religion and obesity on self-rated health and how the relationship varies by racial/ethnic groups are investigated. Additionally, to determine whether certain ethnic groups are more impacted by the frequency of religious attendance and obesity, whites, blacks, and Hispanics are analyzed separately with ordinal logistic regression. ResultsWhen obesity was added in focal relationship between religious services attendance and self-rated health strengthened this focal relationship which is a suppression effect between religious services attending and self-rated health adding obesity. For BMI is also significantly associated with decreased odds of reporting better health–normal weight (OR = 2.99; 95% CI = 2.43–3.67) and overweight (OR = 2.19; 95% CI = 1.79–2.68) compared to obese. Subjects who attend religious services 1–2 time a year (OR = 1.30; 95% CI = 1.04–1.62) and 1–3 times a month (OR = 1.28; 95% CI = 1.05–1.57) are associated with increased odds of reporting better health. In whites, attending religious services 1–2 times a year are associated with increased odds of reporting better health (OR = 1.48; 95% CI = 1.09–2.00) and 1–3 times a month are also associated with increased odds of reporting health (OR = 1.34; 95% CI = 1.02–1.78) compared to never attending religious attendance. The frequency of religious services attendance of blacks and Hispanics are not associated with self-rated health. For BMI, being white is more positively associated with increased odds of reporting better health than black and Hispanic subjects. Although white subjects are less likely to attend religious services more frequently than black and Hispanic subjects, the influence on self-rated health in white subjects is more evidenced than other racial/ethnic groups. ConclusionsAlthough it was not proven that the association between participation in religious services and self-rated health is mediated by obesity, the research shows the suppression effect of obesity between participation in religious services and self-rated health.

Religious Affiliation, Religious Attendance, and Participation in Social Change Organizations

How does religion affect an individual’s likelihood of volunteering for social change causes? This study reports on findings from an analysis of the 2005 wave of the COPPS supplement to the PSID to examine the effects of religious tradition (affiliation) and religious attendance (religiosity) on social change volunteering. We find that adherents to the more liberal Christian denominations—mainline Protestant and Catholic—are more likely to volunteer with social change organizations than are Evangelicals. We also find that adherents to other minority religions such as Judaism and Buddhism and individuals with no religious belief are all more likely to volunteer with social change organizations than are Evangelicals. We find a positive and significant relationship between religious attendance and social change volunteering, but find little difference in the effect of religious attendance on social change volunteering between Evangelicals and other religious traditions (except for Catholics).

Religious Involvement Effects on Mental Health in Chinese Americans

Faith has been shown to serve a protective role in the mental health of African Americans and European Americans. However, little research has examined whether any association exists in Asian Americans. Using the National Latino and Asian American Study dataset, we examined the effect of religious attendance on the mental health of Asian Americans in the United States. The present study focused on Chinese Americans because they are the largest Asian American group. The results revealed that almost 80% of the respondents were foreign-born and that their English proficiency had a positive association with their self-rated mental health. Being male correlated significantly to higher levels of mental health self-rating. After controlling for known predictive variables, such as demographics, cultural and immigration variables, more frequent religious attendance significantly predicted higher self-rating of mental health. These findings suggest that faith may have a unique protective role in Chinese Americans’ mental health.

Examining Attachment to God and Health Risk-Taking Behaviors in College Students

Drawing on insights from attachment theory, this study examined whether three types of attachment to God--secure, avoidant, and anxious--were associated with health-risk behaviors, over and above the effects of religious attendance, peer support, and demographic covariates, in a sample of 328 undergraduate college students. Contrary to prior theory, secure attachment to God is not inversely associated with recent alcohol or marijuana use, or substance use prior to last sexual intercourse. Instead, avoidant and anxious attachment to God are associated with higher levels of drinking; anxious attachment to God is associated with marijuana use; and avoidant attachment to God is associated with substance use prior to last sexual intercourse. These patterns are gender-specific; problematic attachment to God is linked with negative outcomes solely among men.

The Effects of Religion and Gender on Well-Being, Substance Use, and Academic Engagement Among Rural Adolescents

The effects of religious attendance, religious importance, and gender on well-being, substance use, and academic engagement were examined among early adolescents ( N = 683) from rural schools. Results indicated that females viewed religion as more important than males, although the frequency of religious attendance did not differ for males and females. Hierarchical regression results revealed that religious importance was a more prominent protective factor than attendance against substance use even after accounting for parental support; however, no links were found between religiosity and depression or self-esteem. Adolescents who reported that religion was important in their lives reported lower school misbehavior and higher motivation, although those with high religious attendance had higher grades. Interaction effects indicated that religious importance was particularly salient for males compared to females in terms of enhanced school bonding and self-efficacy.

Race and Ethnic Differences in the Effects of Religious Attendance on Subjective Health

Religion and health research has not adequately addressed how the salutary benefits of participating in religious services differ among major racial and ethnic groups. This research uses data from the General Social Surveys to analyze differences in the effects of religious attendance upon subjective health among a sample of non-Latino White, non-Latino Black, and Latino adults. Modeled after a study by Levin and Markides (1986), first-order regressions of religious attendance on subjective health alternately controlled for social support, socioeconomic status, and subjective religiosity. The association between attendance and health tends to hold up among Whites and younger Black and Latino women, but controlling for subjective religiosity explained away bivariate associations among younger respondents in all three race/ethnic groups. Support for the socioeconomic status hypothesis was expected among Blacks and Latinos, but the results did not provide much evidence.

Is there a religious factor in health care utilization?: A review

This paper reviews more than 30 studies of health care utilization in which the effects of religion variables are examined, an area previously unreviewed. The authors found that over three-quarters of these studies reported significant religious differences in rates of utilization. The most common operationalization of religion was religious affiliation (typically Protestant vs Catholic vs Jewish), although the effects of religious attendance and religiosity were occasionally examined. Most major areas of health care use are represented in this literature, including psychiatric care, maternal and child health services, dental care, and physician and hospital utilization. Despite the preponderance of significant findings, it is difficult to isolate any consistent trends, although low-order analyses seem to suggest that Jews are higher utilizers than non-Jews. New findings presented from a study in Appalachiia were inconclusive. The authors discuss the conceptual limitations inherent in ways in which health services researchers typically investigate the effects of religion. Drawing on recent work in the epidemiology of religion, several recommendations are offered regarding the prospect of future research in this area.