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Journal of Religion and Health
Erschienen in: Journal of Religion and Health 3/2011

01.09.2011 | Original Paper

Extending Religion-Health Research to Secular Minorities: Issues and Concerns

verfasst von: Karen Hwang, Joseph H. Hammer, Ryan T. Cragun

Erschienen in: Journal of Religion and Health | Ausgabe 3/2011

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Abstract

Claims about religion’s beneficial effects on physical and psychological health have received substantial attention in popular media, but empirical support for these claims is mixed. Many of these claims are tenuous because they fail to address basic methodological issues relating to construct validity, sampling methods or analytical problems. A more conceptual problem has to do with the near universal lack of atheist control samples. While many studies include samples of individuals classified as “low spirituality” or religious “nones”, these groups are heterogeneous and contain only a fraction of members who would be considered truly secular. We illustrate the importance of including an atheist control group whenever possible in the religiosity/spirituality and health research and discuss areas for further investigation.
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Metadaten
Titel
Extending Religion-Health Research to Secular Minorities: Issues and Concerns
verfasst von
Karen Hwang
Joseph H. Hammer
Ryan T. Cragun
Publikationsdatum
01.09.2011
Verlag
Springer US
Erschienen in
Journal of Religion and Health / Ausgabe 3/2011
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-009-9296-0

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