Health trajectories of individuals who quit active religious attendance: analysis of four prospective cohort studies in the United States

PURPOSE

To examine whether trajectories of health (depressive symptoms, psychological wellbeing, self-rated health, and body mass index) and health behaviors (smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, and cannabis use) changed for individuals who first reported at least monthly religious attendance and then in subsequent study waves reported no active religious attendance.

METHODS

Data were from four cohort studies from the United States collected between 1996 and 2018: National Longitudinal Survey of 1997 (NLSY1997); National Longitudinal Survey of Young Adults (NLSY-YA); Transition to Adulthood Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID-TA); and Health and Retirement Study (HRS) with a total n = 6592 individuals and 37,743 person-observations.

RESULTS

None of the 10-year trajectories of health or health behaviors changed for the worse after the change from active to inactive religious attendance. Instead, the adverse trends were observed already during the time of active religious attendance.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that religious disengagement is a correlate-not a cause-of a life course characterized by poorer health and health behaviors. The religious decline caused by people leaving their religion is unlikely to influence population health.

Testing Environmental Effects on Age at Menarche and Sexual Debut within a Genetically Informative Twin Design

Life-history-derived models of female sexual development propose menarche timing as a key regulatory mechanism driving subsequent sexual behavior. The current research utilized a twin subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; n = 514) to evaluate environmental effects on timings of menarche and sexual debut, as well as address potential confounding of these effects within a genetically informative design. Results show mixed support for each life history model and provide little evidence rearing environment is important in the etiology of individual differences in age at menarche. This research calls into question the underlying assumptions of life-history-derived models of sexual development and highlights the need for more behavior genetic research in this area.

Parent-child Relations, Religiousness, and Adolescent Substance Use Disorders

Research has shown that parent-child relationships and religiousness are negatively associated with substance use among adolescents, but few studies have addressed their relationship with substance use disorders (SUDs). This study explored whether high quality parent-child relations are negatively associated with the risk of an SUD among adolescents, especially when religiousness is high. The data used to assess this inquiry were from 4 years (2016–2019) of the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). SUDs in the past year were based on a set of questions consistent with criteria enumerated in the DSM-IV. Latent measures of parent-child relations and religiousness were also constructed. The results of an augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW) model furnished empirical evidence in support of the notion that the lowest risk of an SUD occurred among those reporting high quality parent-child relations and high religiousness, even after adjusting for a substantial number of selection factors.

Religiosity, Psychological Distress, and Well-Being: Evaluating Familial Confounding With Multicohort Sibling Data

Several studies have associated religiosity with better mental health, but these studies have only partially addressed the problem of confounding. The present study pooled data from multiple cohort studies with siblings to examine whether associations between religiosity and mental health are confounded by familial factors (i.e., shared family background and siblings' shared genetics). Data were collected between 1982 and 2017. Mental health was assessed with self-reported psychological distress (including depressive symptoms) and psychological well-being. Religious attendance was associated with lower psychological distress (standard-deviation difference between weekly vs. never attendance, B = -0.14, confidence interval (CI): -0.19, -0.09; n = 24,598 pairs), and this was attenuated by almost half in the sibling analysis (B = -0.08, CI: = -0.13, -0.04). Religious attendance was also related to higher well-being (B = 0.29, CI: = 0.14, 0.45; n = 3,728 pairs), and this estimate remained unchanged in sibling analysis. Results were similar for religiousness. The findings suggest that previous longitudinal studies may have overestimated the association between religiosity and psychological distress, as the sibling estimate was only one-third of the previously reported meta-analytical association (standardized correlation -0.03 vs. -0.08).

The intersection of individual differences, personality variation, & military service: A twin comparison design

In societies where military service is voluntary multiple factors are likely to affect the decision to enlist. Past research has produced evidence that a handful of personality and social factors seem to predict service in the military. However, recent quantitative genetic research has illustrated that enlistment in the military appears to be partially heritable and thus past research is potentially subject to genetic confounding. To assess the extent to which genetic confounding exists, the current study examined a wide range of individual-level factors using a subsample of twins (n = 1,232) from the restricted-use version of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. The results of a series of longitudinal twin comparison models, which control for the latent sources of influence that cluster within families (i.e., shared genetic and family factors), illustrated generally null findings. However, individuals with higher scores on measures of extraversion and the general factor of personality were more likely to enlist in the military, after correction for familial confounding. Nonetheless, the overall results suggest that familial confounding should be a methodological concern in this area of research, and future work is encouraged to employ genetically informed methodologies in assessments of predictors of military enlistment.

Twin Studies in Brazil: Projects and Plans / Twin Research: Infant Twins' Viewing of Social Scenes; Religiosity and Substance Abuse; Down Syndrome Among Twins; Twin Case of Chronic Periodontitis / In the News: The Twin 'Property Brothers', Twins With Cerebral Palsy; Twins Affected With the Zika Virus; Twin Writers Derek and Roddy; Twins on Sports Teams; Local Quads

Twin research in Brazil twin has expanded enormously in recent years, engaging the interests and efforts of many investigators, students and twins. Descriptions and brief summaries of this work and talks given by investigators at local conferences are presented, based on my four-city lecture tour. This is followed by summaries of twin research on infants' viewing of social scenes, religiosity and substance abuse, Down syndrome, and chronic periodontitis. This article concludes with twin-related news and information of general interest, including identical twin property designers, twins with cerebral palsy, twins affected with the Zika virus, a pair of twin writers, twins in sports, and a set of quadruplets from my childhood neighborhood in Riverdale, New York.