Prior research has identified a number of antecedents to infant mortality, but has been focused on either structural (demographic) forces or medical (public health) factors, both of which ignore potential cultural influences. Our study introduces a cultural model for explaining variations in infant mortality, one focused on the role of community-level religious factors. A key impetus for our study is well-established religious variations in adult mortality at the community level. Seeking to extend the growing body of research on contextual-level effects of religion, this study examines the impact of religious ecology (i.e., the institutional market share of particular denominational traditions) on county-level infant mortality in the U.S. Analyses of congregational census and Kids Count data reveal that a high prevalence of Catholic and most types of conservative Protestant churches are associated with lower rates of infant mortality when compared with counties that feature fewer Catholic and conservative Protestant congregations. However, communities with a large proportion of Pentecostal churches exhibit significantly higher infant mortality rates. After discussing the implications of these findings, we specify various directions for future research.

COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on Black, Hispanic, and lower socioeconomic status communities. Using data from the Community, Health and Politics Study (CHAPS 2021), collected in the midst of the pandemic, we examine differences in COVID-19 health promotion behavior (i.e., avoiding large gatherings, mask wearing, and vaccination status) across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic status subgroups of the population. Moreover, we examine the degree to which observed differences are robust to controls for other health-related disparities, such as access to health insurance, underlying health conditions, personal exposure to COVID-19 (i.e., own diagnoses, knowing persons who have died from COVID-19), and perceived COVID-19 threat. Findings are consistent with arguments proposed by fundamental cause theory and disease stage theory as they indicate fewer differences on the basis of socioeconomic status or race and ethnicity for masking and social distancing, which may be thought of as less effective measures. In contrast, disparities were prominent in vaccination outcomes. Specifically, racial and ethnic minorities, those with lower levels of education, and those with lower incomes had lower odds of vaccination, after controlling for covariates. Private insurance and older age were also associated with higher odds of vaccination. Higher perceived threat of COVID-19 increased the likelihood of all protective behaviors. Our findings suggest that the need for ongoing efforts to increase vaccination uptake in socially disadvantaged communities.

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.

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.

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.