IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jfamec/v34y2013i1p120-140.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Religion and Child Health: Religious Affiliation, Importance, and Attendance and Health Status among American Youth

Author

Listed:
  • Barry Chiswick
  • Donka Mirtcheva

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between religious affiliation, importance of religion, and frequency of church attendance and the reported overall health status and psychological health of children and adolescents by age group (6–11, 12–15, and 16–19 years old), using national data from the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Controlling for child’s initial health, individual and family demographic characteristics, and socio-economic status, differences were found by age and measures of religion and health. Probit analysis revealed a generally positive and statistically significant association between religion and health, especially for the psychological health of children ages 12–15. Mitigating the issue of selection bias on observable characteristics, the Propensity Score Matching analysis generated similar positive associations between religion and child health. These findings are consistent with the corresponding literature on adults. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Barry Chiswick & Donka Mirtcheva, 2013. "Religion and Child Health: Religious Affiliation, Importance, and Attendance and Health Status among American Youth," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 120-140, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:34:y:2013:i:1:p:120-140
    DOI: 10.1007/s10834-012-9312-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10834-012-9312-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10834-012-9312-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gregory Ponthiere, 2011. "Mortality, Family and Lifestyles," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 175-190, June.
    2. John Fitzgerald & Peter Gottschalk & Robert Moffitt, 1998. "An Analysis of Sample Attrition in Panel Data: The Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(2), pages 251-299.
    3. Daniel Miller, 2011. "Maternal Work and Child Overweight and Obesity: The Importance of Timing," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 204-218, June.
    4. Gruber Jonathan H, 2005. "Religious Market Structure, Religious Participation, and Outcomes: Is Religion Good for You?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-32, September.
    5. Case, Anne & Paxson, Christina, 2001. "Mothers and others: who invests in children's health?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 301-328, May.
    6. Dorit Eldar-Avidan & Muhammad Haj-Yahia & Charles Greenbaum, 2008. "Money Matters: Young Adults’ Perception of the Economic Consequences of their Parents’ Divorce," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 74-85, March.
    7. Mark Holder & Ben Coleman & Judi Wallace, 2010. "Spirituality, Religiousness, and Happiness in Children Aged 8–12 Years," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 131-150, April.
    8. Scheve, Kenneth & Stasavage, David, 2006. "Religion and Preferences for Social Insurance," Quarterly Journal of Political Science, now publishers, vol. 1(3), pages 255-286, July.
    9. Linda J. Waite & Evelyn L. Lehrer, 2003. "The Benefits from Marriage and Religion in the United States: A Comparative Analysis," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 29(2), pages 255-275, June.
    10. Sascha O. Becker & Andrea Ichino, 2002. "Estimation of average treatment effects based on propensity scores," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 2(4), pages 358-377, November.
    11. Mocan Naci H. & Tekin Erdal, 2006. "Catholic Schools and Bad Behavior: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-36, May.
    12. Hawe, Penelope & Shiell, Alan, 2000. "Social capital and health promotion: a review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 871-885, September.
    13. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    14. John Fitzgerald & Peter Gottschalk & Robert Moffitt, 1998. "An Analysis of the Impact of Sample Attrition on the Second Generation of Respondents in the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(2), pages 300-344.
    15. Azzi, Corry & Ehrenberg, Ronald G, 1975. "Household Allocation of Time and Church Attendance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(1), pages 27-56, February.
    16. Abbotts, Joanne E. & Williams, Rory G. A. & Sweeting, Helen N. & West, Patrick B., 2004. "Is going to church good or bad for you? Denomination, attendance and mental health of children in West Scotland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 645-656, February.
    17. Heckman, James J. & Robb, Richard Jr., 1985. "Alternative methods for evaluating the impact of interventions : An overview," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1-2), pages 239-267.
    18. Mir Ali & Olugbenga Ajilore, 2011. "Can Marriage Reduce Risky Health Behavior for African-Americans?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 191-203, June.
    19. Nonnemaker, James M. & McNeely, Clea A. & Blum, Robert Wm., 2003. "Public and private domains of religiosity and adolescent health risk behaviors: evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(11), pages 2049-2054, December.
    20. Jonathan Gruber, 2005. "Religious Market Structure, Religious Participation, and Outcomes: Is Religion Good for You?," NBER Working Papers 11377, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Monica Roman & Klaus F. Zimmermann & Aurelian-Petrus Plopeanu, 2022. "Religiosity, Smoking and Other Risky Behaviors," Journal of Economics, Management and Religion (JEMAR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(01), pages 1-27, July.
    2. Christopher R. Tamborini, 2021. "Family and Health over the Past Decade: Review of Selected Studies and Areas of Future Inquiry," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 62-69, July.
    3. Lindsey Roberts & Victoria Banyard & John Grych & Sherry Hamby, 2019. "Well-Being in Rural Appalachia: Age and Gender Patterns Across Five Indicators," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 391-410, February.
    4. Jane Cooley Fruehwirth & Sriya Iyer & Anwen Zhang, 2019. "Religion and Depression in Adolescence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(3), pages 1178-1209.
    5. Jason Delaney & John Winters, 2014. "Sinners or Saints? Preachers’ Kids and Risky Health Behaviors," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 464-476, December.
    6. Juyoung Jang & Sharon M. Danes, 2016. "Social Capital Accessibility of Intermarrieds," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 553-565, December.
    7. Fischer, Justina A.V. & Pastore, Francesco, 2015. "Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis: religion and female employment over time," MPRA Paper 65645, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Fiorillo, Damiano & Sabatini, Fabio, 2015. "Structural social capital and health in Italy," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 129-142.
    9. TaeEung Kim & Chang-Yong Jang & Minju Kim, 2020. "Socioecological Predictors on Psychological Flourishing in the US Adolescence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-9, October.
    10. Chang-Yong Jang & Eun-Hyung Cho & Yi-Sub Kwak & TaeEung Kim, 2020. "The Relationship between Flourishing and Depression in Children in the U.S. Using a Socioecological Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-11, November.
    11. Olga Popova, 2016. "Suffer for the Faith? Parental Religiosity and Children’s Health," Working Papers 356, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).
    12. Wang, Qunyong & Lin, Xinyu, 2014. "Does religious beliefs affect economic growth? Evidence from provincial-level panel data in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 277-287.
    13. Samantha Rawlings & Zahra Siddique, 2020. "Domestic Violence and Child Mortality in the Developing World," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(4), pages 723-750, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olga Popova, 2016. "Suffer for the Faith? Parental Religiosity and Children’s Health," Working Papers 356, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).
    2. Philipp Ager & Antonio Ciccone, 2018. "Agricultural Risk and the Spread of Religious Communities," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 1021-1068.
    3. Basedau, Matthias & Gobien, Simone & Prediger, Sebastian, 2017. "The Ambivalent Role of Religion for Sustainable Development: A Review of the Empirical Evidence," GIGA Working Papers 297, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    4. Brown, Timothy Tyler, 2009. "Rational praying: The economics of prayer," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 37-44, January.
    5. Philipp Ager & Antonio Ciccone, 2013. "Rainfall Risk and Religious Membership in the Late Nineteenth-Century US," Working Papers 2013-17, FEDEA.
    6. Matthias Basedau & Simone Gobien & Sebastian Prediger, 2018. "The Multidimensional Effects Of Religion On Socioeconomic Development: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 1106-1133, September.
    7. Cohen-Zada, Danny & Sander, William, 2010. "Religious Participation versus Shopping: What Makes People Happier?," IZA Discussion Papers 5198, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. S. Brock Blomberg & Thomas DeLeire & Gregory D. Hess, 2006. "The (After) Life-Cycle Theory of Religious Contributions," CESifo Working Paper Series 1854, CESifo.
    9. Dehejia, Rajeev & DeLeire, Thomas & Luttmer, Erzo F.P., 2007. "Insuring consumption and happiness through religious organizations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1-2), pages 259-279, February.
    10. Marek Loužek, 2007. "Ekonomie náboženství - je hypotéza sekularizace opodstatněná? [Economics of religion - is the secularization hypothesis tenable?]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2007(5), pages 659-680.
    11. Kuo-Liang Chang & George Langelett & Andrew Waugh, 2011. "Health, Health Insurance, and Decision to Exit from Farming," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 356-372, June.
    12. Bettendorf, L. & Dijkgraaf, E., 2010. "Religion and income: Heterogeneity between countries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 74(1-2), pages 12-29, May.
    13. Slade, Alexander N., 2012. "Health investment decisions in response to diabetes information in older Americans," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 502-520.
    14. Dong, Jie & Ren, Yanjun & Glauben, Thomas, 2024. "Gospel or curse: The impact of religious beliefs on energy poverty in rural China," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 11.
    15. Anja Koebrich Leon, 2013. "Religion and Economic Outcomes – Household Savings Behavior in the USA," Working Paper Series in Economics 268, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    16. Soldatos, Gerasimos T., 2014. "On the Religion-Public Policy Correlation," MPRA Paper 60859, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Popova, Olga, 2014. "Can religion insure against aggregate shocks to happiness? The case of transition countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 804-818.
    18. Sebastian Sterl, 2018. "Determinanten zur Einkommensentwicklung in Deutschland: Ein Vergleich von Personen mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund auf Basis des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP)," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 992, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    19. Mariya Aleksynska & Barry Chiswick, 2013. "The determinants of religiosity among immigrants and the native born in Europe," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 563-598, December.
    20. Mir Ali & Olugbenga Ajilore, 2011. "Can Marriage Reduce Risky Health Behavior for African-Americans?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 191-203, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:34:y:2013:i:1:p:120-140. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.