Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing
Volume 4, Issue 6 , Pages 368-373 , November 2008

Hitting the Target: Why Existing Measures of “Religiousness” Are Really Reverse-Scored Measures of “Secularism”

  • Daniel E. Hall, MD, MDiv, MHSc

      Affiliations

    • Center for Health Equities Research and Promotion, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, PA
    • Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding Author. Address: Suite F 1206 Presbyterian, 200 Lothrop St, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
  • ,
  • Harold G. Koenig, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
  • ,
  • Keith G. Meador, MD, ThM, MPH

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
    • Department of Pastoral Theology, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC

References 

  1. Hill PC, Hood R. Measures of Religiosity. Birmingham, Ala: Religious Education Press; 1999;
  2. Sloan RP, Bagiella E. Claims about religious involvement and health outcomes. Ann Behav Med. 2002;24:14–21
  3. Strawbridge WJ, Cohen RD, Shema SJ, Kaplan GA. Frequent attendance at religious services and mortality over 28 years. Am J Public Health. 1997;87:957–961
  4. In:  McCullough ME,  Pargament KI,  Thoresen C editor. Forgiveness: Theory, Research and Practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press; 2000;
  5. Idler EL, Kasl SV. Religion among disabled and nondisabled persons II: attendance at religious services as a predictor of the course of disability. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 1997;52:S306–S316
  6. Koenig HG, George LK, Peterson BL. Religiosity and remission from depression in medically ill older patients. Am J Psychiatry. 1998;155:536–542
  7. Levin JS, Chatters LM, Taylor RJ. Religious effects on health status and life satisfaction among Black Americans. J Gerontol Soc Sci. 1995;50B:S154–S163
  8. Hall DE, Koenig HG, Meador KG. Conceptualizing “religion”: how language shapes and constrains knowledge in the study of religion and health. Perspect Biol Med. 2004;47:386–401
  9. Hill PC, Pargament KI. Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of religion and spirituality: implications for physical and mental health research. Am Psychol. 2003;58:64–74
  10. Moberg D. Assessing and measuring spirituality: confronting dilemmas of universal and particular evaluative criteria. J Adult Dev. 2002;9:47–60
  11. Fetzer Institute, NIA Working Group. Supplemental Appendix to the Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for use in Health Research. Kalamazoo, Mich: John E. Fetzer Institute; 1999;
  12. Idler EL, Musick MA, Ellison CG, et al. Measuring multiple dimensions of religion and spirituality for health research: conceptual background and findings from the 1998 General Social Survey. Res Aging. 2003;25:327–365
  13. Gallup Poll. Religion. http://www.gallup.com/content/default.asp?ci=1690&pg=2Accessed February 13, 2004
  14. Krause N, Ellison CG, Shaw BA, Marcum JP, Boardman JD. Church-based social support and religious coping. J Sci Study Relig. 2001;40:637–656
  15. Krause N, Ellison CG, Wulff KM. Church-based emotional support, negative interaction, and psychological well-being: findings from a national sample of Presbyterians. J Sci Study Relig. 1999;37:725–741
  16. Kark JD, Shemi G, Friedlander Y, Martin O, Manor O, Blondheim SH. Does religious observance promote health? (Mortality in secular vs religious kibbutzim in Israel). Am J Public Health. 1996;86:341–346
  17. Wuthnow R. Christianity in the Twenty-first Century: Reflections on the Challenges Ahead. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1993;
  18. Jensen LA. Moral divisions within countries between orthodoxy and progressivism: India and the United States. J Sci Study Relig. 1998;37:90–107
  19. Bellah RN. Civil religion in America. Daedalus. 1967;96:1–21
  20. McClay WM. The soul of a nation. The Public Interest. In: 2004;p. 4–19Spring
  21. Everitt B. Cambridge Dictionary of Statistics. 2nd ed.. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2002;
  22. Shuman JJ, Meador KG. Heal Thyself: Spirituality, Medicine, and the Distortion Of Christianity. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2003;
  23. Slater W, Hall TW, Edwards KJ. Measuring religion and spirituality: where are we and where are we going?. J Psychol Theol. 2001;29:4–21
  24. Saunders E. Hypertension in minorities: blacks. Am J Hypertens. 1995;8(12):115S–119S
  25. Wong M, Shapiro M, Boscardin W, Ettner S. Contribution of major diseases to disparities in mortality. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:1585–1592
  26. Sherkat DE. Tracking the restructuring of American religion: religious affiliation and patterns of religious mobility, 1973-1998. Soc Forces. 2001;79:1459–1493
  27. Sherkat DE, Wilson J. Preferences, constraints, and choices in religious markets: an examination of religious switching and apostasy. Soc Forces. 1995;73:993–1026
  28. Barrett R, Heller K. Death and dying in the black experience. J Palliat Med. 2002;5:793–799
  29. Crawley L, Payne R, Bolden J, et al. Palliative and end-of-life care in the African American community. JAMA. 2000;284:2518–2521
  30. Levin JS, Chatters LM. Religion, health, and psychological well-being in older adults: findings from three national surveys. J Aging Health. 1998;10:504–531
  31. Cohen AB, Hill PC. Religion as culture: religious individualism and collectivism among American Catholics, Jews and Protestants. J Pers. 2007;75:709–742
  32. Cohen AB, Rozin P, Siegel J. Faith versus practice: different bases for religiosity judgments by Jews and Protestants. Eur J Soc Psychol. 2003;33:287–295
  33. Cohen AB, Hall DE, Koenig HG, Meador KG. Social versus individual motivation: implications for normative definitions of religious motivations. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2005;9:48–61

 This work has been supported in part by grant JTF 2065 from the John Templeton Foundation (Hall and Koenig).

PII: S1550-8307(08)00221-8

doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2008.08.002

Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing
Volume 4, Issue 6 , Pages 368-373 , November 2008