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Fear God, Not COVID-19: Is Conservative Protestantism Associated with Risky Pandemic Lifestyles?

Previous research has established attitudinal and behavioral health variations in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, but scholarship on the religious antecedents associated with these outcomes has only recently gained momentum. Rhetoric from some leading conservative Protestants in the U.S. has unde...

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Autores principales: Bartkowski, John P., Klee, Katherine, Hill, Terrence D., Garcia-Alexander, Ginny, Ellison, Christopher G., Burdette, Amy M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9957345/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36833117
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11040582
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author Bartkowski, John P.
Klee, Katherine
Hill, Terrence D.
Garcia-Alexander, Ginny
Ellison, Christopher G.
Burdette, Amy M.
author_facet Bartkowski, John P.
Klee, Katherine
Hill, Terrence D.
Garcia-Alexander, Ginny
Ellison, Christopher G.
Burdette, Amy M.
author_sort Bartkowski, John P.
collection PubMed
description Previous research has established attitudinal and behavioral health variations in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, but scholarship on the religious antecedents associated with these outcomes has only recently gained momentum. Rhetoric from some leading conservative Protestants in the U.S. has underplayed the threat of the pandemic and may have contributed to unhealthy pandemic behaviors within this faith tradition. Moreover, previous inquiries have revealed that conservative Protestantism’s otherworldly focus can thwart personal and community health. We use nationally representative data to test the hypotheses that, compared with other religious groups and the non-religious, conservative Protestants will tend to (1) perceive the pandemic as less threatening and (2) engage in riskier pandemic lifestyles. These hypotheses are generally supported net of confounding factors. We conclude that affiliation with a conservative Protestant denomination can undermine public health among this faith tradition’s adherents and may therefore compromise general health and well-being during a pandemic. We discuss the implications of these findings, offer recommendations for pandemic health promotion among conservative Protestants, and delineate promising avenues for future research on this important topic.
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spelling pubmed-99573452023-02-25 Fear God, Not COVID-19: Is Conservative Protestantism Associated with Risky Pandemic Lifestyles? Bartkowski, John P. Klee, Katherine Hill, Terrence D. Garcia-Alexander, Ginny Ellison, Christopher G. Burdette, Amy M. Healthcare (Basel) Article Previous research has established attitudinal and behavioral health variations in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, but scholarship on the religious antecedents associated with these outcomes has only recently gained momentum. Rhetoric from some leading conservative Protestants in the U.S. has underplayed the threat of the pandemic and may have contributed to unhealthy pandemic behaviors within this faith tradition. Moreover, previous inquiries have revealed that conservative Protestantism’s otherworldly focus can thwart personal and community health. We use nationally representative data to test the hypotheses that, compared with other religious groups and the non-religious, conservative Protestants will tend to (1) perceive the pandemic as less threatening and (2) engage in riskier pandemic lifestyles. These hypotheses are generally supported net of confounding factors. We conclude that affiliation with a conservative Protestant denomination can undermine public health among this faith tradition’s adherents and may therefore compromise general health and well-being during a pandemic. We discuss the implications of these findings, offer recommendations for pandemic health promotion among conservative Protestants, and delineate promising avenues for future research on this important topic. MDPI 2023-02-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9957345/ /pubmed/36833117 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11040582 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bartkowski, John P.
Klee, Katherine
Hill, Terrence D.
Garcia-Alexander, Ginny
Ellison, Christopher G.
Burdette, Amy M.
Fear God, Not COVID-19: Is Conservative Protestantism Associated with Risky Pandemic Lifestyles?
title Fear God, Not COVID-19: Is Conservative Protestantism Associated with Risky Pandemic Lifestyles?
title_full Fear God, Not COVID-19: Is Conservative Protestantism Associated with Risky Pandemic Lifestyles?
title_fullStr Fear God, Not COVID-19: Is Conservative Protestantism Associated with Risky Pandemic Lifestyles?
title_full_unstemmed Fear God, Not COVID-19: Is Conservative Protestantism Associated with Risky Pandemic Lifestyles?
title_short Fear God, Not COVID-19: Is Conservative Protestantism Associated with Risky Pandemic Lifestyles?
title_sort fear god, not covid-19: is conservative protestantism associated with risky pandemic lifestyles?
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9957345/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36833117
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11040582
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