"A random sample of 3,851 community-dwelling adults aged 64-101 years residing in the Piedmont of North Carolina was surveyed in 1986 as part of the NIH Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE) program. Private religious activities and a wide variety of sociodemographic and health variables were assessed at baseline.

...During a median 6.3-year follow-up period, 1177 subjects died. Low levels of private religious activity (meditation, prayer, or Bible study) were a significant predictor of mortality in healthy but not disabled subjects. After the investigators controlled for demographics and health status (including depression and stressful life events), persons with no disability and little or no private religious activity in 1986 were 63% more likely to die during the follow-up (HR [hazard ratio] 1.63, 95% CI 1.20-2.21). Even after controlling for social support and health behaviors, investigators found that lack of private religious activity continued to predict a 47% greater risk of dying (HR 1.47, 95% CI 1.07-2.03)." 

(Source:  Helm, H., Hays, J.C., Flint, E., Koenig, H.G., Blazer, DG (2000). "Effects of private religious activity on mortality of elderly disabled and nondisabled adults," Journal of Gerontology (Medical Sciences), 55A, M400-M405; abstract available at Duke University Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health: http://www.dukespiritualityandhealth.org/research/abstracts/index.html#prayer .)

"[T]here's a growing awareness in the medical profession of the role spirituality plays in health. For example, two-thirds of the nation's 125 medical schools now include courses on spirituality and faith, up from just three schools in 1992.

Some medical students are learning how to take patients' spiritual histories" along with their medical histories, according to the John Templeton Foundation, which funds research on spirituality and health.

The foundation recently awarded the U. of C. $1.8 million to study the topic. Researchers plan to study the relationship between believing in God and heart health and whether having religious beliefs reduces social conflicts, improves sleep and promotes healthy aging."

(Source:  Jim Ritter, "Is religion good for health? Studies say amen," Chicago Sun-Times, April 14, 2005; http://www.suntimes.com/output/health/cst-nws-god14.html .)

Among the astonishingly high number of American couples who now have children out of wedlock, how many do marry during the first year after the birth of their child?  And what are the distinguishing characteristics of these couples who do belatedly take vows?  These questions define an important part of the research agenda for a study recently concluded by a team of sociologists from Princeton, Northwestern, and Columbia Universities.

Using data collected for 3,712 children born out of wedlock between 1998 and 2000 and representative of all non-marital births in American cities larger than 200,000, the authors of the new study found that a year after the birth of their child, less than one-tenth (9.1%) of the initially unmarried parents had wed.  This relatively low marriage rate did not surprise the scholars, who evaluate it in the context of "widespread changes in family-related behaviors" during the Sixties and Seventies.  During this "watershed period for changes in norms and practices governing union formation," Americans witnessed "dramatic increases in the social acceptance" of many behaviors previously recognized as immoral, including "premarital sex, cohabitation, nonmarital childbearing, and divorce."

Among the couples who have a child out of wedlock but then do marry within a year, the researchers identify certain distinguishing maternal and paternal characteristics.  For instance, the data show clearly that "men's actual earnings and employment...[have] a positive effect on marriage."  The researchers indeed find that the effects for higher earnings for men are "large and positive for marriage": statistics showing that "earning $25,000 or higher in the past year more than doubles the odds of marriage."

In contrast, women's employment and income have mixed and ambiguous effects on the likelihood of wedlock after a nonmarital birth.  Thus, although "women's hourly wage rate...has a positive effect on marriage," the researchers report that "most effects of mothers' earnings...are negative in sign for predicting marriage."  Overall, the researchers conclude that "women's nonemployment does not hurt the chances for marriage."  The authors of the new study thus interpret their findings as evidence that "some fragile families do associate marriage with the specialization that entails women's nonemployment," a marital specialization that enables women to "specialize in home, rather than market, production."

Homemaking is not the only activity that frequently sets belatedly married mothers apart from still-unmarried peers: the authors of the new study find that among couples who have a child out of wedlock, "women's church attendance increases the chances of marriage" during the first year after the child's birth (p < 0.05).  In a permissive culture that generally accepts non-marital childbearing, "religion...[remains] one source of resistance to the liberalization of sexual norms and behaviors."