The Role of Religion in Economic and Demographic Behavior in the United States: A Review of the Recent Literature

This paper presents a critical review and synthesis of recent research on the role of religion in economic and demographic behavior in the United States. Relationships reviewed include the effects of religion on investments in human capital, labor supply and wealth accumulation; union formation and dissolution; and fertility. The paper also comments on the growing literature on the implications of religious dissimilarity between the spouses; on two different, possibly countervailing ways in which religiosity may affect demographic and economic behavior; and on the importance of estimating models that allow for possible non-linearities in the effects of religiosity.religion, marriage, divorce, education, fertility, female labor supply

The Role of religion in economic and demographic behavior in the US: a review of recent literature.

The past few years have witnessed substantial progress in our understanding of how religious factors influence economic and demographic factors including education, female employment, fertility, and union formation and dissolution. In this paper I highlight results from recent studies on the role of religion in these and related economic and demographic behaviors, updating the critical literature review presented in an earlier article (Lehrer 2004a). Based on the theoretical framework suggested there, I also offer a reinterpretation of previous findings in the literature and identify promising avenues for future research. The focus of this review is on the United States, but a few closely related studies that employ data from other countries are also included.religion; fertility; education.

The association between church attendance and psychological health in Northern Ireland : a national representative survey among adults allowing for sex differences and denominational difference

This study extends previous research concerning the association between religion and psychological health in six ways: (1) by focusing clearly on religious attendance (church attendance); (2) by employing a robust measure of psychological distress (GHQ-12); (3) by studying a highly religious culture (Northern Ireland); (4) by taking sex differences into account (male or female); (5) by taking denominational differences into account (Catholic or Protestant); (6) and by obtaining a national representative sample (N = 4,281 adults aged 16 and above). Results from a 2 (sex) by 2 (denomination) ANCOVA demonstrated that Catholics recorded significantly lower levels of psychological health compared to Protestants, and that females showed significantly lower levels of psychological health compared to males. In addition, females reported higher frequency of religious service attendance than males, and Catholics reported higher attendance rates than Protestants. A significant positive association was found between frequency of religious attendance and GHQ-12 scores, and this association was moderated by sex and denomination. In conclusion, the results suggest that there may be sex and denominational differences in further understanding the relationship between frequency of religious attendance and psychological health

Religion, Human Capital Investments and the Family in the United States

This paper critically reviews what is known, based on analyses of micro-level U.S. data, about the role of religion in various interrelated decisions that people make over the life cycle, including investments in secular human capital, cohabitation, marriage, divorce, family size and employment. It also identifies gaps in our knowledge, and suggests agenda items for future research in the field. These include use of statistical models that allow for non-linearities in the effects associated with religious participation; consideration of contextual effects; and analyses that address anomalies found in earlier work regarding patterns of non-marital sex and divorce among conservative Protestants. Further work is also needed to increase our understanding of the role that religious factors are playing as various dimensions of the second demographic transition, along with elements of "American exceptionalism," continue to unfold in the U.S.religiosity, religion

Bonding Alone: Familism, Religion, and Secular Civic Participation

This study examines the influence of familism, religion, and their interaction on participation in secular voluntary associations. We develop an insularity theory to explain how familism and religion encourage Americans to avoid secular civic participation. Using data from the first wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, this study finds that familism reduces participation in secular organizations. Moreover, religion moderates the effect of familism: specifically, religious involvement tends to increase the negative effect of familism on secular civic participation. Although religious involvement in and of itself fosters secular civic participation, strong familism tends to dampen positive impacts of religious involvement. For familistic individuals, religious congregations appear to reinforce their insularity within their immediate social circle and family

Effects of Neutral Hydrogen on Cosmic Ray Precursors in Supernova Remnant Shock Waves

Many fast supernova remnant shocks show spectra dominated by Balmer lines. The H$\alpha$ profiles have a narrow component explained by direct excitations and a thermally Doppler broadened component due to atoms that undergo charge exchange in the post-shock region. However, the standard model does not take into account the cosmic-ray shock precursor, which compresses and accelerates plasma ahead of the shock. In strong precursors with sufficiently high densities, the processes of charge exchange, excitation and ionization will affect the widths of both narrow and broad line components. Moreover, the difference in velocity between the neutrals and the precursor plasma gives rise to frictional heating due to charge exchange and ionization in the precursor. In extreme cases, all neutrals can be ionized by the precursor. In this paper we compute the ion and electron heating for a wide range of shock parameters, along with the velocity distribution of the neutrals that reach the shock. Our calculations predict very large narrow component widths for some shocks with efficient acceleration, along with changes in the broad- to-narrow intensity ratio used as a diagnostic for the electron-ion temperature ratio. Balmer lines may therefore provide a unique diagnostic of precursor properties. We show that heating by neutrals in the precursor can account for the observed H$\alpha$ narrow component widths, and that the acceleration efficiency is modest in most Balmer line shocks observed thus far.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Religion, deprivation and subjective wellbeing: Testing a religious buffering hypothesis

The buffering effect of religion upon wellbeing has been well demonstrated; however, the question of whether this buffering effect also extends to protecting the religious against material hardship still requires investigation. We present a Bayesian linear regression model showing that religious affiliation provides a protective buffer against the corrosive effects on subjective wellbeing of living in impoverished conditions. Results from a national probability sample tested with an objective indicator of the deprivation of participants’ local neighbourhood, derived from census data, indicated that religious people living in deprived neighbourhoods were higher in subjective wellbeing than their non-religious counterparts living in those same neighbourhoods (N = 5,984 New Zealanders). It was in impoverished conditions that the difference in wellbeing between religious and non-religious people was apparent; those living in affluent neighbourhoods showed comparably high levels of subjective wellbeing regardless of whether or not they were religious. Our results explore new ground by showing for the first time that the buffering effect of religion is readily apparent within New Zealand

Tropical rainforest bird community structure in relation to altitude, tree species composition, and null models in the Western Ghats, India

Studies of species distributions on elevational gradients are essential to understand principles of community organisation as well as to conserve species in montane regions. This study examined the patterns of species richness, abundance, composition, range sizes, and distribution of rainforest birds at 14 sites along an elevational gradient (500-1400 m) in the Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) of the Western Ghats, India. In contrast to theoretical expectation, resident bird species richness did not change significantly with elevation although the species composition changed substantially (<10% similarity) between the lowest and highest elevation sites. Constancy in species richness was possibly due to relative constancy in productivity and lack of elevational trends in vegetation structure. Elevational range size of birds, expected to increase with elevation according to Rapoport's rule, was found to show a contrasting inverse U-shaped pattern because species with narrow elevational distributions, including endemics, occurred at both ends of the gradient (below 800 m and above 1,200 m). Bird species composition also did not vary randomly along the gradient as assessed using a hierarchy of null models of community assembly, from completely unconstrained models to ones with species richness and range-size distribution restrictions. Instead, bird community composition was significantly correlated with elevation and tree species composition of sites, indicating the influence of deterministic factors on bird community structure. Conservation of low- and high-elevation areas and maintenance of tree species composition against habitat alteration are important for bird conservation in the southern Western Ghats rainforests.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures, two tables (including one in the appendix) Submitted to the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (JBNHS

The role of religion in economic and demographic behavior in the United States: a review of the recent literature

This paper presents a critical review and synthesis of recent research on the role of religion in economic and demographic behavior in the United States. Relationships reviewed include the effects of religion on investments in human capital, labor supply and wealth accumulation; union formation and dissolution; and fertility. The paper also comments on the growing literature on the implications of religious dissimilarity between the spouses; on two different, possibly countervailing ways in which religiosity may affect demographic and economic behavior; and on the importance of estimating models that allow for possible non-linearities in the effects of religiosity