Religion and Infant Mortality in the U.S.: A Preliminary Study of Denominational Variations

Abstract

Abstract: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.

Religion and Infant Mortality in the United States: A Community‐Level Investigation of Denominational Variations in Postneonatal Deaths

“…) and the fact that PNIMRs are more subject to social factors than general IMRs. Moreover, in preliminary analyses (results available on request), our replication of Bartkowski, Xu, and Garcia () with PNIMRs revealed a significant positive association for conservative Protestant concentration. For these reasons, H2 is warranted.…”

“…For example, a one unit increase in the number of mainline adherents per 1,000 residents is associated with a decrease in the postneonatal mortality rate in 2010 by a factor of .005. Although overall IMRs were unaffected by mainline Protestant market share in earlier research (Bartkowski, Xu, and Garcia ), PNIMRs are more sensitive to social influences. The distinctiveness of this finding for mainline Protestants may be due to our dependent variable.…”

“…A preliminary investigation conducted by Bartkowski, Xu, and Garcia () revealed that a greater market share of Catholic congregations per 1,000 residents was associated with significantly lower IMRs. And when conservative Protestant faiths were decomposed into evangelical, fundamentalist, Pentecostal, and other conservative Protestant subgroups, that study found that higher concentrations of all but Pentecostal churches were associated with lower IMRs.…”

“…Still, questions about conservative Protestant influence on IMRs remain because of the adverse effects of conservative Protestant concentration on adult mortality (Blanchard et al. ) and the single study year (namely, the year 2000) that was investigated by Bartkowski, Xu, and Garcia (). Our study advances this lone investigation on the subject by: (1) focusing only on PNIMRs given the overriding influence of social factors on postneonatal deaths; (2) utilizing longitudinal data from 1990, 2000, and 2010 to detect trends in light of medical advancements and public awareness campaigns that have reduced overall IMRs; (3) controlling for previously unexplored factors, including health‐care access and social inequality; and (4) employing proportions of religious adherents as a more refined measure of religious ecology than number of congregations.…”

“…Although conservative Protestant concentration produced null findings with overall IMRs in a previous study (Bartkowski, Xu, and Garcia ), our hypothesizing of a positive relationship in this study is warranted by other evidence of adverse mortality outcomes associated with conservative Protestantism (Blanchard et al. ) and the fact that PNIMRs are more subject to social factors than general IMRs.…”