An Exploratory Qualitative Analysis of the Stanford-Templeton Convenings on Islam and Suicide.

For over 70 years, studies have reported lower rates of completed suicide in Muslim-majority countries and individuals who identify as Muslim. To this point, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between Islam and lower risk of suicide remain understudied. In an effort to advance our understanding, we convened a bilingual international interdisciplinary panel of experts for a discussion of the current state and future directions of the field. In this paper, we present an exploratory qualitative analysis of the core themes that emerged from the group interviews. We also derive a general theoretical model of the association between Islam and suicide risk.

Do Religious Struggles Mediate the Association Between Neighborhood Disorder and Health in the United States?

Over the past two decades, numerous studies have linked the subjective experience of neighborhood disorder (perceptions of crime, dilapidation and ambient strains) with poorer health. We test whether religious struggles (religious doubts and feeling abandoned or punished by God) mediate this association. Our counterfactual mediation analyses of data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS) (n = 1741) revealed consistent indirect effects of neighborhood disorder through religious struggles for anger, psychological distress, sleep disturbance, poorer self-rated health, and shorter subjective life expectancy. This study contributes to previous work by integrating the study of neighborhood context and religion.

Do early life traumas moderate the impact of cumulative pandemic stress on anger?

Do early life traumas condition the psychological consequences of pandemic stressors? Using national data from the Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (May-June 2021), we examine whether early life traumas buffer or amplify the impact of cumulative pandemic stressors (CPS) on anger, an understudied measure of emotional distress. We examine two competing perspectives. The trauma amplification perspective posits that people who experience early life traumas are especially vulnerable to subsequent stressors, while the trauma resiliency perspective suggests the opposite, that people who experience traumas in early life are less vulnerable to subsequent stressors. The trauma resiliency perspective was partially supported by our analyses. Although early life traumas abated the impact of three or more pandemic stressors on anger, we failed to observe any attenuation at lower levels of pandemic stress exposure. We extend previous research by recasting the common stress proliferation model as a stress modification model and by focusing on feelings of anger. Findings are discussed in the context of social stress, mental health, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Crisis of Faith and Sleep Quality in the United States: A Literal Dark Night of the Soul?

A crisis of faith is an intrapersonal struggle with ultimate meaning that occurs when one's supramundane reality is called in question. We propose a theoretical model which suggests that a crisis of faith will contribute to poorer sleep quality by undermining a general sense of meaning and purpose in life, especially among women. We use national survey data from the Wave 5 of the Baylor Religion Survey United States (N = 1395). Ordinary least squares regression models with robust standard errors are utilized. Sobel-Goodman mediation techniques are used to test the proposed mediating pathway. Our results suggest that a crisis of faith is associated with lower sleep quality, and that this pathway is partially mediated by a lower sense of meaning and purpose in life. Finally, we found that the relationship between a crisis of faith and lower sleep quality was weaker for women. We discuss the implications of our results and suggest how future research may explore the relevance of a crisis of faith for well-being as well as other aspects of the human condition.

Male Sexual Dysfunction and the Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence.

We contribute to our understanding of the social epidemiology of intimate partner violence (IPV) by developing a mediation model that frames IPV as an outcome of male sexual dysfunction (performance anxiety and erectile dysfunction) and the mechanisms of masculine discrepancy stress (the perceived failure to conform to internalized normative expectations of masculinity) and anger. Our mediation analyses of recently collected data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS), a national probability sample of 792 men, confirmed that sexual dysfunction was indirectly associated with the perpetration of any IPV, physical IPV, and sexual IPV through the compound path of masculine discrepancy stress and anger.

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 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.

Gender Role Discrepancy Stress and COVID-19 Prevention Behaviors Among Men in the United States.

PURPOSE: To examine the associations between gender role discrepancy (non-conformity to socially prescribed masculine gender role norms) and discrepancy stress (distress arising from this discrepancy) on COVID-19 prevention behaviors among men, and the potential moderating effects of race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and income on these relationships. DESIGN: A national online survey was conducted between May and June 2021. SETTING: The United States. SUBJECTS: 749 adult men residing in the United States. MEASURES: A scale measured gender role discrepancy and discrepancy stress. COVID-19 prevention outcomes were constructed and included self-reported vaccination status/intentions, social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand-sanitizing. ANALYSIS: Multivariate generalized linear models were performed in SPSS. RESULTS: Gender role discrepancy associated with greater odds of vaccination (AOR = 1.35, 95% CI = 1.02-1.78, P = .04), while discrepancy stress associated with lower odds of vaccination (AOR = .48, 95% CI = .35-.68, P < 0. 001) and mask-wearing (AOR = .54, 95% CI = .37-.79, P = .001) for men overall. Discrepancy stress's negative effect on specific COVID-19 prevention behaviors was only apparent or was amplified for men in lower income brackets (vaccination, social distancing, mask-wearing), racial/ethnic minority men (vaccination), and sexual minority men (social distancing). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that gender role discrepancy stress negatively affects men's engagement in COVID-19 prevention, particularly for men in marginalized populations.

Income Inequality and Population Health: Examining the Role of Social Policy.

Studies of the relationship between income inequality and life expectancy often speculate about the role of policy, but direct empirical research is limited. Drawing on the neo-materialist perspective, we examine whether the longitudinal association between income inequality and life expectancy is mediated and moderated by policy liberalism in U.S. states (2000-2014). More liberal policy contexts are characterized by greater efforts to regulate the economy, redistribute income, and protect vulnerable groups and lesser efforts to penalize deviant social behavior. We find that state-level income inequality is inversely associated with policy liberalism and life expectancy. The association between income inequality and life expectancy was not mediated by policy liberalism but was moderated by it. The association is attenuated in states with more liberal policy contexts, supporting the neo-materialist perspective. This finding illustrates how states like New York and California (with liberal policy contexts) can exhibit high income inequality and high life expectancy.

Religion and Pandemic Weight Gain: A Refuge from the Storm?

The COVID-19 pandemic was an inherently stressful global crisis that was associated with weight gain for over 40% of the American public. Building on previous research, we draw on recently collected national survey data from the United States to examine the effects of religious attendance (both in-person and virtual), the sense of divine control, and religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles on pandemic weight gain. A series of logistic regression models were conducted. Our findings suggest that divine control and monthly in-person religious attendance were associated with a lower risk of pandemic weight gain, while R/S struggles were associated with a higher risk of weight gain. Our results reveal the complex role that religiosity can play with respect to pandemic weight gain.

(Un)holy Smokes? Religion and Traditional and E-Cigarette Use in the United States.

This study employed national cross-sectional survey data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (n = 1578 to 1735) to model traditional cigarette and e-cigarette use as a function of religious affiliation, general religiosity, biblical literalism, religious struggles, and the sense of divine control. Although the odds of abstaining from cigarettes and e-cigarettes were comparable for conservative Protestants and non-affiliates, conservative Protestants were more likely to cut down on cigarettes and e-cigarettes during the pandemic. Religiosity increased the odds of abstaining from cigarettes (not e-cigarettes) and reduced pandemic consumption of cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Biblical literalism was unrelated to abstaining from cigarettes and pandemic changes in cigarette use; however, biblical literalists were more likely to cut e-cigarette use during the pandemic. While the sense of divine control was unrelated to abstaining from cigarettes and e-cigarettes, these beliefs increased the odds of cessation from traditional and e-cigarette use. Finally, our religious struggles index was unrelated to smoking behavior. Our study is among the first to report any association between religion and lower e-cigarette use.

Political ideology and pandemic lifestyles: the indirect effects of empathy, authoritarianism, and threat.

Background: In this paper, we integrate theory and research from sociology, psychology, and political science to develop and test a mediation model that helps to explain why political conservatism is often associated with pandemic behaviors and lifestyles that are inconsistent with public health recommendations for COVID-19. Methods: Using national data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (n = 1743), we formally test the indirect effects of political conservatism (an index of Republican party identification, conservative political orientation, right-wing news media consumption, and 2020 Trump vote) on pandemic lifestyles (an index of social distancing, hand sanitizing, mask usage, and vaccination) through the mechanisms of empathy (concern about the welfare of others), authoritarian beliefs (authoritarian aggressiveness and acquiescence to authority), and pandemic threat perceptions (threats to self and to the broader society). Result: Our results confirm that political conservatism is associated with riskier pandemic lifestyles. We also find that this association is partially mediated by lower levels of empathy, higher levels of authoritarian beliefs, and lower levels of perceived pandemic threat. Conclusions: Understanding why political conservatism is associated with riskier pandemic lifestyles may eventually lead us to ways of identifying and overcoming widespread cultural barriers to critical pandemic responses.

Mechanisms Linking Masculine Discrepancy Stress and the Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence Among Men in the United States.

Although studies show that masculine discrepancy stress (i.e., the intrapsychic strain associated with failing to meet internalized masculine ideals) is associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration, little is known about the processes underlying this association. There may be other social psychological constructs at play that explain this relationship further. The present study uses recently collected data from a national survey of men living in the United States (n = 711) to formally test whether the effects of discrepancy stress on three different forms of IPV perpetration are mediated by anger, self-esteem, and perceived powerlessness. We find that discrepancy stress is directly associated with higher levels of anger, lower levels self-esteem, a sense of powerlessness, and a greater odds of perpetrating any physical IPV and severe physical IPV resulting in injuries, but not sexual IPV perpetration in our sample of men. Our mediation analyses confirms that masculine discrepancy stress is indirectly associated with perpetrating all three forms of IPV through the mechanism of anger. Self-esteem and perceived powerlessness are not supported as mediators. These findings add to our understanding of the link between masculinity and violence perpetration and can inform IPV reduction interventions. Gender transformative interventions that reduce discrepancy stress among men by shifting men's adherence to traditional masculine norms, and that integrate anger management strategies, should be explored in future research.

Perceptions of neighborhood dangerousness and changes in sleep quality during the COVID-19 pandemic: Assessing the mediating role of changes in health behaviors.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that neighborhood context contributes to variations in morbidity and mortality. This body of work includes a burgeoning literature that links adverse neighborhood characteristics (e.g., neighborhood poverty and perceptions of disorder and dangerousness) with poorer sleep outcomes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many neighborhoods exhibited socioeconomic downturns and escalations in crime and violence. The question is the extent to which these changes in neighborhood conditions have impacted the sleep quality of residents. In this paper, we use original survey data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS), a national probability sample of adults living in the U.S., to formally test whether changes in perceptions of neighborhood dangerousness during the pandemic are associated with sleep quality during the same period. Regression analyses show that while reports of a neighborhood becoming safer during the pandemic are associated with better sleep quality, reports of a neighborhood becoming more dangerous are associated with worse sleep quality. Mediation analyses also indicate that the association between increased neighborhood dangerousness and poorer sleep quality is partially explained by a concurrent deterioration in diet quality, but not increases in alcohol or cigarette consumption. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for research and policy on neighborhood context and sleep.

Gun ownership, community stress, and sleep disturbance in America.

OBJECTIVE: Although there is widespread speculation about guns helping people to sleep better, this idea has only recently faced empirical scrutiny. We test whether people who own guns tend to exhibit healthier sleep outcomes than people who do not own guns and whether the association between community stress and sleep is less pronounced for people who own guns. DESIGN: We use ordinary least squares, multinomial logistic, and binary logistic regression to model cross-sectional survey data. SETTING: Our data span the United States. PARTICIPANTS: The 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS) is based on a national probability sample of 1714 adults. MEASUREMENTS: Our analyses include multiple measures of gun ownership (personal ownership, keeping a gun in one's bedroom, and COVID-19 pandemic gun purchases), community stress (neighborhood disorder, neighborhood danger during the pandemic, and perceptions of police protection), and sleep (insomnia symptoms, sleep duration, and pandemic sleep). RESULTS: We found that people who own guns and people who do not own guns tend to exhibit similar sleep outcomes and that people who experience community stressors tend to exhibit similar sleep outcomes regardless of gun ownership. CONCLUSION: Our analyses confirm that gun ownership is unrelated to sleep and that guns are insufficient to mitigate the detrimental effects of community stress on sleep. We extend prior work by (a) using more detailed measurements of gun ownership, community stress, and sleep, (b) assessing whether people keep a gun in their bedroom, and (c) exploring the intersection of pandemic gun purchases and pandemic sleep quality.

Conservatism and infrequent mask usage: A study of US counties during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eventually recommended wearing masks in public to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the practice has been unevenly distributed in the United States. METHODS: In this article, we model county-level infrequent mask usage as a function of three pillars of conservatism: (1) Republican political leadership (percentage of votes for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election), (2) conservative Protestantism (percentage evangelical Christian), and (3) right-wing media consumption (Google searches for Fox News). RESULTS: Our analyses indicate that mask usage tends to be lower in counties with greater support for President Trump (in majority Trump counties), counties with more evangelical Christians, and areas with greater interest in Fox News. CONCLUSION: Given the effectiveness of masks in limiting the transmission of respiratory droplets, conservative ideological resistance to public health and recommended pandemic lifestyles may indirectly support the spread of the coronavirus.

Sexual Dysfunction and Gun Ownership in America: When Hard Data Meet a Limp Theory.

Although there has been no direct empirical evidence linking sexual dysfunction (SD) with gun ownership, speculation has been widespread and persistent for decades. In this paper, we formally examine the association between SD and gun ownership. Our primary hypothesis, derived from the psychosexual theory of gun ownership, asserts that men experiencing SD are more likely to personally own guns than other men. To test this hypothesis, we used recently collected data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS), a national probability sample of 780 men, and binary logistic regression to model gun ownership as a function of SD. Our key finding is that men experiencing SD are no more likely to own guns than men without SD. This interpretation was supported across several indicators of SD (performance anxiety, erection trouble, and ED medication) and gun ownership (personal gun ownership, purchasing a gun during the pandemic, and keeping a gun in one's bedroom). To our knowledge, we are the first to have directly tested the association between SD and gun ownership in America. Our findings are important because they contribute to our understanding of factors associated with gun ownership by challenging the belief that phallic symbolism and masculinity somehow drive men with SD to purchase guns. Our results also remind us of the perils of gun culture rhetoric, which, in this case, function to discredit gun owners and to further stigmatize men with ED. We conclude by calling for more evidence-based discussions of SD and guns in society.

Sad Eyes, Crooked Crosses: Religious Struggles, Psychological Distress and the Mediating Role of Psychosocial Resources.

In this paper, we employed data from the 2011 Miami-Dade Health Survey (n = 444) to formally test whether the association between religious struggles and psychological distress is mediated by psychosocial resources. We found that religious struggles were associated with lower levels of social support, self-esteem, the sense of control, and self-control. We also observed that religious struggles were associated with higher levels of non-specific emotional distress, depression, and anxiety, but not somatization. Our mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects of religious struggles on emotional distress (not somatization) through social support, self-esteem, and the sense of control, but not self-control.

Postpartum Depressive Symptoms during the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Examination of Population Birth Data from Central New Jersey.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the mental health of women in the perinatal period prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We use provisional vital statistics data for births occurring in the central region of New Jersey. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale is employed to assess depressive symptoms. Our focal analysis uses linear regression models to test whether giving birth during the pandemic is associated with elevated depressive symptoms. All analyses are performed using time-matched (September 2019-April 2020; n = 18,531) and month-matched (January 2019-April 2019 and January 2020- April 2020; n = 18,346) samples. RESULTS: Women who gave birth in March and not in April reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than those who gave birth prior to the pandemic in our time-matched (b = 0.09) and month-matched (b = 0.09) samples. The magnitude of this association is approximately one-third the magnitude of the association between preterm birth and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that researchers and practitioners should pay special attention to signs of postpartum depression and women's adaptive coping responses in the early stages of pandemics.

Modeling recent gun purchases: A social epidemiology of the pandemic arms race.

In this paper, we document the social patterning of recent gun purchases to advance a contemporary social epidemiology of the pandemic arms race. We employ cross-sectional survey data from the 2020 Health, Ethnicity and Pandemic Study, which included a national sample of 2,709 community-dwelling adults living in the United States. We use binary logistic regression to model recent pandemic gun purchases as a function of age, sex, race/ethnicity, nativity status, region of residence, marital status, number of children, education, household income, pandemic job change, religious service attendance, pandemic religion change, and political party. Overall, 6% of the sample reported purchasing a new gun during the pandemic. Multivariate regression results suggest that pandemic gun purchasers tend to be male, younger, US-born, less educated, recently unemployed, experiencing changes in their religious beliefs, Republicans, and residents of southern states. To our knowledge, we are among the first to formally document a new population of pandemic gun owners that is characterized by youth, US-nativity, and religious volatility. Our analyses underscore the need for public health initiatives designed to enhance gun-related safety during pandemics, including, for example, addressing underlying motivations for recent gun purchases and improving access to training programs.