The Association Between Individualised Religiosity and Health Behaviour in Denmark: Are Social Networks a Mediating Factor?

Journal of Religion and Health https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-022-01650-1 ORIGINAL PAPER The Association Between Individualised Religiosity and Health Behaviour in Denmark: Are Social Networks a Mediating Factor? Nanna Herning Svensson1 · Anders Larrabee Sonderlund1 · Sonja Wehberg1 · Niels Christian Hvidt1 · Jens Søndergaard1 · Trine Thilsing1 Accepted: 18 August 2022 © The Author(s) 2022 Abstract The present study investigates whether social networks mediate the well-established positive association between religiosity and health behaviour. Most research has focused on traditional public religiosity (e.g. regular church attendance). This study, however, focuses on the Danish population in which non-traditional and private religiosity is common. We utilise data from the Danish population-based project, Early Detection and Prevention. Our results suggest that religiosity is linked to health behaviour; however, this association is not mediated by social network. Keywords Religiosity · Social network · Diet · Physical activity · Mediation · Denmark Introduction The positive association between religiosity and health is well-established in the literature (Koenig et al., 2012) and shows that religious individuals often tend to be healthier than their non-religious counterparts. Extensive empirical research has shown that this association may in part be due to better health behaviour (Koenig et al., 2012), with numerous studies showing links between religiosity and physical activity (Kobayashi et al., 2015), diet (Kim & Sobal, 2004; Reeves et al., 2012; Svensson et al., 2019), alcohol consumption (Koenig et al., 2012; Nordfjærn, 2018), and smoking (Kobayashi et al., 2015; Svensson et al., 2019). Recent studies have also shown that religiosity is associated with a later sexual debut (Moreau et al., 2013) and safe sex (Vigliotti et al., 2020). Nevertheless, exactly how and why religiosity facilitates health behaviour is unclear. * Nanna Herning Svensson 1 Department of Public Health, Research Unit of General Practice, University of Southern Denmark, J. B. Winsløws Vej 9A, 5000 Odense, Denmark 13 Vol.:(0123456789) Journal of Religion and Health Several studies have argued that the positive association between religiosity and health behaviour may be mediated by the social aspects that often are associated with religiosity. That is, religion, like most other forms of group memberships, may provide a sense of social identity, norms, belonging, and community for its adherents (Ellison & Levin, 1998). This type of social connectedness represents a source of emotional and practical social support which likely confers a broad range of health benefits on the individual (Haslam et al., 2008; Haslam et al., 2009; Lim & Putnam, 2010; Ysseldyk et al., 2013). For example, both Ellison and Levin (1998) and Oman and Thoresen (2002) have proposed that the social networks and support systems that are accessible through religious participation represent one potential pathway through which religiosity impacts on health behaviour. They argue that the positive health values and norms attached to many religious groups and communities facilitate individual health behaviour and discourage unhealthy behaviour. They also note the potential positive effects of religious coping methods that buffer against psychological stress, many of which are rooted in community cohesion and social support (Ellison & Levin, 1998; Oman & Thoresen, 2002). Other research has found that being embedded in a supportive and religious social network provides health-oriented social capital in the form of health resources and information as well as moral and practical support to engage in health behaviour (Yeary et al., 2012). Additional studies have demonstrated that the social support received from a church congregation predicted moderately increased levels of physical activity, greater fruit and vegetable consumption, and less tobacco use compared to a general (i.e. nonreligiosity specific) social support measure (Debnam et al., 2012). These studies thus indicate that the positive link between religiosity and health behaviour may be mediated by religious social networks and the associated support. While the association between religiosity, social network, and health behaviour is relatively clear, the aforementioned studies have exclusively focused on support derived from traditional participatory, public religiosity such as being an active member of a church congregation. The reason for this presumably relates to the fact that most of the research in this area has come out of the US, arguably the most fervently religious nation in the West where a particularly public, participatory, and socially oriented brand of Christianity permeates most parts of society ("Americans are far more religious than adults in other wealthy nations," 2018; "U.S. adults are more religious than Western Europeans," 2018). However, outside of (as well as within) the US, there are other styles of religiosity that rely less on explicit social participation in well-defined and highly visible faith-based organisations, but which still may facilitate increased and more diverse social connectedness through other mechanisms. For example, several studies have found that while traditional, public religious social networks may provide ready access to a cohesive, supportive, and distinctive in-group (typically defined by denomination, congregation, etc.), the often exclusive nature of this network might also prevent potentially valuable outgroup social relationships (e.g. with secular individuals or people of other religious convictions), thus limiting the diversity of the individual’s social network (Cheadle & Schwadel, 2012). By contrast, private religiosity—characterised by quiet faith and less explicit religious activity and participation—has been linked with less restrictive social interaction and more expansive social values, universalism, and openness 13 Journal of Religion and Health to people regardless of creed (Schwadel & Hardy, 2022). In other words, while public religiosity may provide membership in a clearly defined but often relatively rigid and exclusive in-group, private religiosity may facilitate more diverse, flexible, and less prescriptive social connectedness. Consistent with this, Hastings (2016) found that people who were spiritual but non-denominational were no less connected than people who engaged in denominational and public religious activity (e.g. regularly attending church services) (Hastings, 2016). Thus, in terms of social connectedness, there was no significant advantage associated with traditional public religiosity over non-denominational and private faith or spirituality. This suggests a generalised social element of religious faith that exists in addition to the distinct and potentially exclusive in-group communities that are associated with traditional public denominational religiosity. These findings beg the (...truncated)