Is religion relevant in modern Ireland

1
Is religion relevant in modern Ireland

• Patricia Casey
• Mater Misericordiae University Hospital

2
Economics and religion

• Religions beliefs and engagement in religious
  practice influence happines
• Does not have denominational barriers
• Religions beliefs seem to modify the impact of
  low income on happiness i.
• Data from a representative sample from 22
  European countries (almost 30,000 individuals)
  this study ii found that those who were
  religious had higher life satisfaction.
• Those experiencing unemployment and marital
  breakdown had a less negative impact on
  churchgoers and on those who prayed
• There was little evidence that these effects
  arose because of turning to religion during
  adversity.
• Those who were religious had higher life
  satisfaction than non-religious counterparts.
• i Dolan, P, Peasgood, T. and White, M. 2006.
  Review of research on the influences on personal
  wellbeing and application to public policy
  making. The Whitehall Wellbeing Working Group.
• ii Clark, A and Lelkes, O. 2006. Deliver us
  from evil religion as insurance.

3
Religion and mental health

• Medline search Religion and Mental Health
• 1.1.1993-31.12.1999 142 origional papers
• 1.1.2000-31.12.2006 363 origional papers
• For 2007 alone 80 such papers

4
Current status

• More than half medical schools in US run modules
  on religion and healing
• Handbook of Religion and Health 2001 Koenig and
  McCullough Oxford University PressNew York

5
Religious vz Spiritual

• Spiritual defined as engagement in intentional
  and disciplined spiritual practices or beliefs
  that are independent of church or organized
  religion. These include acceptance of a higher
  power that might or might not include God or
  participation in regular practices such as
  attendance at yoga classes, regular meditation,
  etc.

6
Religious vz spiritual

• Canandian study 70,000 compared those who were
  religious versus spiritual (Baetz, Griffin 2004)
• Formal involvement in worship lower depression
  scores even after cofounders controlled e.g.
  physical health
• Six ethnic groups in Britain (King 2007)
• No difference in prevalence of common mental
  disorders in those with religious/spiritual
  beliefs when compared to those with none.
• When religious and spiritual groups separated
  spiritual group had more mental disorders than
  those with religious beelifs or with none

7
Adolescent risk taking

• 6578 adolescents
• Religious involvement greater impact on
  psychosocial adjustment than spirituality
• Due to involvement in community
• However, chuch attendance per se greater impact
  on risk taking behaviour
• Good and Willoughby 2006

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Adolescent risk taking

• 2000 nationally representative teenagers (Sinha
  2006)
• Parents and teens interviewed
• Controlled for confounders
• Percieved importance of religion, church
  attendance and youth group activities
• Reduced alcohol, smoking, cannabis use, truancy
• Sexual activity reduced by latter two
• Increase in risk taking over time reduced in
  religious group
• Relgious practice buffered against effects of low
  self-esteem on truancy and depression

9
How?

• More socialised youth drawn to religion
• These activities engender socialised behaviour
• Moral imperatives of religion integrated into
  their lives
• Boundaries set by religion
• Less time available for mischief
• Youth leaders as role models
• Role of religiously comitted parents

10
Delinquency

• Hellfire and Delinquency Hirschiti and Stark 1969
• Positive correlation
• Systematic review Johnson et al 2000
• Negative correlation but not all studies in
• agreement. More methodologically robust
• (mltiple outcome measures, reliaility shecks)
  found
• negative correlation

11
Crime-homicide

• Religion may lead to homicide if stimulating
  religious hatred, present it as a cosmic battle
  or a good vz evil (dualism)
• Durkheim 1951and Kimball 2003
• Homicide rates higher in more religious countries
• Paul 2003

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Homicide

• These views challanged by Jensen 2006
• Is this due to certain types of religion?
• Date from World Values Survey, 54 nations
• Data on homicide from WHO databank
• 1990-93 and 1995-97
• Relationship between passionate dualism and
  homicide
• was positive while between benevolent religious
  variables and
• homicide negative
• Controlled in separate analysis for political
  variables and found that
• these contributed 75 of the variance in homicide
  rates
• Therefore certain types of religious variables
  associated with homicide

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Types of suicide - Durkheim

• Altruistic
• Egoistical
• Anomic

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Religion and suicide

• Is suicide related to religious beliefs/practice?
• What is the mechanism by which religious beliefs
  reduce suicide suicide intolerance or social
  cohesion provided by religion?
• Do the effects apply to at an individual level as
  well as at a societal level?

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Religion and suicide Neelman 1997

• 19 Western countries including USA.
• Face to face interviews with 28,085 individuals
• Ecological findings Higher rates among females
  associated with lower levels of religious beliefs
  and less strongly religious attendance. Less
  strong among men.
• Individual level At an individual level,
  stronger religious beliefs associated with lower
  tolerance of suicide. Personal religious beliefs
  for men and women and for men exposure to a
  religious environment also, protect against
  suicide. Mediated by tolerance of suicide rather
  than social support of religious beliefs.
• Confirms findings of other studies of association
  between personal religious beliefs rather than
  denominational affiliation (Stack USA) and of
  relationship to suicide tolerance.

16
Religion and suicide

• WHO databank on suicide
• Countries grouped by major religious category
  e.g. Buddist, aethist, Christain etc.
• Rates highest in aetheist and lowest in Muslim
  countries
• Differences less for women than for men.
• Bertolote 2002

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Religion and suicide

• 584 older adults dying by suicide
• 4297 dying from natural causes
• Compared religious participation and none
• Odds of non-participation higher in suicide group
• Nisbet 2000

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Marital Stability

• Numerous studies have demonstrated that religious
  affiliation and regular religious practice are
  associated with greater marital satisfaction and
  marital stability, a finding that is to be
  expected since almost all religions are
  pro-marriage.
• Greatest stability among married couples is found
  in those who are homogamous for religious
  affiliation
• The least stability is in couples where one is
  religiously affiliated and the other is not, with
  inter-faith marriages lying in the middle i.
  Conversion in one of the partners leads to the
  same stability as religiously homogamous couples.
  Taking account of couples where neither is
  religiously affiliated, these have the most
  unstable marriages.
• i Lehrer, EL, 1996. The determinants of
  marital stability. An comparative analysis
  offirst and higher order marriages In Ed TP
  Schultz, Research in Population Economics 8.
  Grenwich CT JAI Press. 91-121.

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Marital stability

• Some of the effects on religion on marital
  stability come from the injunctions against
  divorce
• Indirect pathways are also influential e.g.
  attitude to cohabitation and childbearing are
  also important factors since low fertility and
  pre-marital cohabitation ii have been shown to
  reduce the stability of subsequent marriage.
• The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) shows
  how these play out in different religious and
  non-religious groups. For example Mormons and
  evangelical Christians are lest likely to cohabit
  while non-affiliated are the most likely to do
  so. Economic studies postulate that the former
  have incentives to avoid the fragility of
  cohabitation so as to optimise stability for
  their children, in light of the higher fertility
  rates in these faiths iii.
• ii Hohmann-Marriott, BE. 2006. Shared beliefs
  and the union stability of married and
  co-habiting couples. Journal of Marriage and
  Family. 2006. 68,4. 1015- 1028.
• iii Lehrer EL. 2004. The role of religion in
  union formation. An economic perspective.
  Population Research and Policy Review. 23.
  1161-185.

20
Longevity

• A meta-analysis of all studies, both published
  and unpublished, relating to religious
  involvement and longevity was carried out in 2000
  i.
• Forty two studies were included involving some
  126,000 subjects.
• Active religious involvement increased the chance
  of living longer by 29
• participation in public religious practices such
  as church attendance increased the chance of
  living longer by 43.
• A further study found that for women the benefits
  of attending religious services were stronger
  than not smoking and for men more beneficial than
  taking exercise.
• Did not stem from the fact that those were
  worshippers were in better physical health in the
  first instance since this, and a number of other
  confounders. social, health and economic, ii
  were controlled in the data analysis.
• i McCullogh, ME, Larson, DB, Hoyt, WT et al.
  2000. Religious involvement and mortality a
  meta-analytic review. Health Psychology. 19,3.
  211-222
• ii Strawbridge, WJ et al. 1997. Frequent
  attendance at religious services and mortality
  over 28 years. American Journal of Public Health.
  87,6. 957-961.

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How does the positive effect of religion come
about?

• Lifestyle
• Social support
• Inherent benefits of practice

22
Conclusion

• Religious practice has a positive impact on many
  aspects of society
• Delinquancy
• Crime
• Suicidal behaviour
• Adolescent risk taking
• Marital stability
• Longevity
• Mental health

23
Attempted suicide

• Less examined (Dervic et al 2004)
• 350 in-patients with depression
• Those unafilliated more lifetime history of
  suicide attampts even when controlling for
  confounders and same levels of depression and
  hopelessness
• Mediated by moral objections (Dervic 2004 and
  MAlone 2000)
• Religious less innate aggression

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Suicidal Ideation
Passive death wish. Active death wish Fleeting.
Plans In formation
Fully formed Active suicidal
behaviour Most deliberate self-harm episodes are
not suicidal attempts but have other
motivations. All self-harm episodes must be
assessed psychiatrically in order to identify
those who are making suicide attempts.
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The school

• No glorification of the act
• Avoid referring to the person as happy
• No guards of honour
• Normalise activities as soon as possible
• Encourage responsible media coverage

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Inappropriate preventive measures

• Telephone hotlines
• School based information programmes
• Awareness programmes
• Simple explanations offered

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What can be done

• School based programmes of uncertain
  valueScreening for depressive illness in
  schoolsVigilance for and awareness of
  psychiatric illnessReduce alcohol
  consumptionReduce availability of means of
  suicideResponsible reportingInterventions in
  high risk groups e.g. DSH, illness

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Attachement theory

• Known anecdotallly for aeons
• Need for secure attachment and anxiety if
  separated from primary caregiver
• Freud linked it to food
• Harry Harlows monkeys
• Bowlby The nature of the Childs Tie to his
  Mother (1958)

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Attachement theory contd.

• Based on theory that humans need humans
• Begins in infants and between 6-24 months becomes
  specific for limited number of caregivers
• Determines futures interpersonal relations

30
Protective factors

• Strong connections to family and community
  support
• Religious activities
• Ready access to treatment
• Adherence to treatment
• Psychiatric support
• Problem solving skills

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Depression
32
Religious coping
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Marital Dysharmony
34
Bereavement
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Longevity