Relations between Religiosity, BMI, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Young Adults: A Model Comparison Study.
Limbers, Christine A. ; Teasdale, Ashley ; Beaujean, A. Alexander 等
Relations between Religiosity, BMI, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Young Adults: A Model Comparison Study.
Religiosity is generally associated with positive health outcomes
in adult populations (Lee & Newberg, 2005; Oman & Thoresen,
2005; Powell, Shahabi, & Thoresen, 2003; Seeman, Dubin, &
Seeman, 2003; Seybold & Hill, 2001). For example, church attendance
is related to a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer,
lower mortality rates, better blood pressure, and increased immune
functioning. Despite the relation between religiosity and health, other
research has shown that certain religious populations are at an
increased risk for obesity--a known predictor of multiple adverse health
outcomes (Koenig, 2012). Protestants have shown an increased risk for
obesity, which some have attributed, at least in part, to the prominent
role food plays in Protestant church life (Dodor, 2012; Feinstein, Liu,
Ning, Fitchett, & Lloyd-Jones, 2010; Ferraro, 1998, Sack, 2001).
Health-related quality of life (HRQOL), which focuses on
individuals' assessment of subjective perceptions of their physical
and psychosocial well-being, has been increasingly acknowledged as an
important health outcome measure (WHOQOL Group, 1993). Findings from
both patient and university populations support a positive association
between religiosity and HRQOL (Corrigan, McCorkle, Schell, & Kidder,
2003; Ferriss, 2002; Poston & Turnbull, 2004). For example, the
degree to which adult patients with advanced cancer considered
themselves to be religious was associated with better overall HRQOL
(Vallurupalli et al., 2012). In domestic and international university
students in New Zealand, Hsien-Chuan Hsu et al. (2009) found religiosity
was associated with greater psychological and social quality of life.
Obesity is a risk factor for diminished HRQOL. In a meta-analysis,
Ul-Haq and colleagues (2013a) found obese adults manifest diminished
physical quality of life compared to normal weight adults (weighted mean
difference [WMD] = -3.73; 95% confidence interval = -5.54 to -1.92) (1).
Adults with class III obesity demonstrated significantly lower mental
quality of life than normal weight adults (WMD = -1.75; 95% confidence
interval= -3.33 to -0.16). A similar pattern was observed in a separate
meta-analysis conducted in youth and young adults up to age 19 (Ul-Haq,
Mackay, Fenwick, & Pell, 2013b). Significantly lower physical (WMD =
-11.93; 95% confidence interval= -15.13 to -8.74) and psychosocial (WMD
= -999; 95% confidence interval= -1398 to -6.01) quality of life were
self-reported in youth and young adults who were obese. Greater deficits
in health-related quality of life were observed with increasing BMI
categories.
Analytic Models
There are a number of ways that scholars have posited how religious
practice can influence people's reaction to stress (Nelson, 2009;
Pargament, 1997). Concerning health outcomes, there are five common
analytic models (Chatters, 2000; See Figure 1 for simplified versions of
these models.) The suppressor model (2) postulates that the presence of
a stressor leads individuals to increase their religious activities
(e.g., prayer, service attendance), which then functions to reduce
(suppress) the deleterious effects of stress on health. In the
distress-deterrent (counterbalancing) model, stress and religion have
independent, opposite influences on health. In the prevention model,
religion exerts both direct and indirect protective effects on health.
Religious involvement benefits health indirectly by lessening the
stressor. In the moderator model, the stressor interacts with religion
such that the stressor's deleterious effect on health varies by
degree of religious involvement (i.e., religion has a buffering effect
by weakening the effect of the stressor on health). Last, there is the
health effects model, which is similar to suppressor model, but the
direction of the stressor's relation to religion is the opposite.
With this model, the stressor prevents certain types of religious
activity.
Current Study
To date, there has been limited research on the relations between
religiosity, HRQOL, and BMI. The purpose of the present study was to
examine how religiosity relates to health-related quality of life using
BMI as a stressor. We fit and compared the five common analytic models
used to explain how religious practice can influence people's
reaction to stress.
Method
Participants
Participants were 264 undergraduate students from a private,
religiously-affiliated university in the United States. Demographic
information for the sample is presented in Table 1. Given the small
correlations between sex and the main study outcome variables (Table 2),
the decision was made to combine the 225 females and 38 males (one
participant had missing sex information) into one sample for the
statistical analyses.
Measures
All respondents completed HRQOL, religiosity, and demographic
instruments. In addition, we measured respondents' height and
weight.
Health-related quality of life. We measured HRQOL using the fourth
edition of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Young Adult
Scales[TM] (PedsQL 4.0[TM]; Varni & Limbers, 2009). The PedsQL 4.0
is a self-report measure for ages 18 to 25 years. It includes 23 items
across four domains: (a) Physical Functioning (8 items), (b) Emotional
Functioning (5 items), (c) Social Functioning (5 items), and (d)
Work/School Functioning (5 items). Respondents indicate how much of a
problem each item's statement has been for them in the past month
using a 5-point scale (0 = never a problem; 1 = almost never a problem;
2 = sometimes a problem; 3 = often a problem; 4 = almost always a
problem). After scoring the items, they are transformed to a 0-100 scale
with higher scores indicating better HRQOL.
Religiosity. To measure religiosity, we adapted items from the
in-home interview of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
Health (Harris et al., 2009). The item stems were: (a) How important is
religious faith in shaping how you live your daily life (0=Extremely
important, 1=Very, 2=Somewhat, 3=Not very, or 4=Not important at all)?
and (b) How often do you attend religious services not counting wedding,
baptisms, and funerals (0=Never, 1= A few times a year, 2=Many times a
year, 3= Once a month, 4= 23 times a month, 5=Once a week, 6=More than
once a week)? Participants also responded to the question, "Which
religion best describes you?" (Buddhist, Christian Catholic,
Christian Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Muslim,
Nation of Islam, Native American, Orthodox (Eastern), Pagan or Wiccan,
or Other--).
Body Mass Index. We calculated respondents' body mass index
(BMI) from their height and weight measures, computed as weight in
kilograms divided by height in meters squared.
Procedures
We recruited participants from a private university in the
southwest part of America. Although the university is religiously
affiliated, students are not required to endorse any particular religion
for admittance. Undergraduate students in introductory psychology
courses participated in this research project as part of their course
requirements. Students from a variety of majors take these courses. We
collected data for this study in person through groups of 15-20
individuals.
Before respondents started the study, we obtained their written
informed consent. After providing consent, participants completed the
measures in the following order: demographic questionnaire, religiosity
questionnaire, and PedsQL[TM] 4.0. Upon completing the paper-and-pencil
measures, a trained research assistant escorted respondents individually
to a separate room and weighed and measured them. The university's
Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the study procedures before
data collection began.
Statistical Analyses
We fit path models representing each of the Models A-E in Figure 1
(Loehlin & Beaujean, 2016). Models A and E are structurally the
same, only differing by the direction of path coefficients. We used each
PedsQL scale score (Physical Functioning, Emotional Functioning, Social
Functioning, School/Work Functioning) as a separate outcome variable
within the same model. After determining the optimal model, we then fit
the same set of models but included demographic variables (i.e., gender,
age, race/ethnicity, religion). All statistical analyses were conducted
in R using the lavaan and psych packages (Revelle, 2017; Rosseel, 2012;
R Development Core Team, 2017). Syntax for all analyses are available on
the Open Science Framework at osf.io/hegmv.
Model fit. Since the models in Figure 1 are not nested or
over-identified, we used two information-criterion measures to compare
the models' fit: Akaike's corrected information criterion
(AICc) and the sample-size adjusted Bayesian information criterion
(aBIC). Both measures seek to find the simplest model that can describe
the data well, although they use somewhat different criteria to make
this determination (Burnham & Anderson, 2004).
Individual AIC and BIC values are not directly interpretable
because they contain arbitrary constants and are affected by sample
size. Thus, for both fit measures the typical interpretation is that
smaller values indicate a more favored model among the models fit. When
between-model differences in AICc/aBIC values are small, however, the
acceptance of a single model may lead to a false sense of confidence.
Consequently, we calculated the evidence weights for both in favor of
the best model for both indices (Wagenmakers & Farrell, 2004). These
weights can be interpreted as the probability that a given model is the
best model, given the data and the set of models evaluated.
Results
Missing Data
Four respondents (2% of sample) had missing data on either gender
(n=1), race (n=1), or BMI (n=2). To handle these missing values, we used
full information methods when estimating the parameters (Enders, 2011).
Religiosity
The two religiosity items were strongly correlated (Pearson and
polychoric correlations of .73). Instead of using the variables
separately, we created a single religiosity variable. We did this by
conducting an item factor analysis and then extracting scores from the
first factor. We created the factor scores using the method described by
ten Berge, Krijnen, Wansbeek, and Shapiro (1999). The correlation
between the factor scores and first factor was .92, providing some
validity evidence for the scores (Grice, 2001).
Descriptive Statistics
The bottom part of Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for BMI,
religiosity, and PedsQL scores. Correlations among the variables are
provided in Table 2.
All variables except BMI appear to be univariate normal. We
examined multivariate normality using Mardia's tests of
multivariate skew and kurtosis. Both values ([b1.sub.p] = 999,
[b2.sub.p] = 59.48) as well as a Q-Q plot indicate they are likely not
multivariate normal. Consequently, we used a robust estimator for our
analyses (MLR), which provides somewhat more accurate standard error
estimates with non-normal data.
Models
The top part of Table 3 presents the AICc and aBIC results from
fitting the models without any covariates. The distress-deterrent model
appears to fit the best, indicating the stressor (BMI) and religiosity
have independent relations to all four measures of HRQOL.
The bottom part of Table 3 presents the AICc and aBIC results from
fitting the models with the covariates for gender, race, age, and
religion included in the model. For all models, the covariates were used
to predict all four HRQOL outcomes. Again, the distress-deterrent model
appears to fit the best, indicating that after controlling for gender,
race, age, and religion, BMI and religiosity are still independently
related to all four HRQOL outcomes.
Table 4 contains the path coefficients for the distress-deterrent
model with covariates. Across all HRQOL outcomes except physical, BMi
and religiosity have opposite relations (BMI negative and religiosity
positive). This indicates that higher levels of BMI are associated with
poorer perceived emotional, social, and work/school functioning, while
higher levels of religiosity are associated with better functioning in
the same domains. For physical HRQOL, BMI and religiosity both have
negative relations. This indicates that higher levels of BMI and
religiosity are associated with poorer perceived physical functioning.
Nonetheless, these relations should be interpreted with some
caution. While the distress-deterrent model was the best-fitting model
of those examined, BMI and religiosity explain a relatively minimal
amount of the variability in all of the PedsQL variables ([R.sup.2]
ranging from .01-.05). Moreover, while it appears that BMI may have a
stronger influence on perceived functioning than religiosity, confidence
intervals for the variables overlap. Thus, we cannot rule out that the
two variables have the same relations with the outcome variables.
Discussion
The purpose of the present study was to examine how religiosity
relates to health-related quality of life using BMI status as a
stressor. We examined five common models for how religiosity and stress
relate to health outcomes. In the present study, the distress-deterrent
model demonstrated the best overall fit. Thus, stress (i.e., BMI) and
religiosity had independent and opposite influences on health-related
quality of life. For emotional, social, and work/school functioning, BMI
had a negative relation while the relation to religiosity was positive.
Our findings are consistent with a study in older adults with
chronic illness that found support for the distress-deterrent model
(Boswell, Kahana, & Dilworth-Anderson, 2006). In their path
analysis, greater spirituality was associated with better well-being;
however, spirituality did not have a significant or positive association
with chronic stress. Thus, spirituality was not responsive to stress but
was still beneficial to well-being (Boswell et al., 2006). Similarly, in
the current study greater religiosity was associated with better
perceived emotional, social, and work/school functioning. Religiosity
was not associated with BMI status as these variables had independent
and opposite influences on emotional, social, and work/school domains of
the PedsQL. As such, religiosity was not responsive to the stressor of
having an elevated BMI status but was still beneficial to emotional,
social, and work/school quality of life.
For physical functioning, however, the relation was negative for
both BMI and religiosity. While the finding that elevated BMI was
associated with worse physical functioning is consistent with previous
literature (Nader et al., 2006), the finding that greater religiosity
was associated with worse physical functioning (but not emotional,
social, or work/school functioning) is notable. This finding may support
the idea that components of Protestant Christian church life contribute
to a more sedentary lifestyle. For example, young adults who spend more
time attending religious services (which are generally sedentary in
nature) may be less likely to engage in physical activity. Although we
did not measure levels of physical activity in the present study, in his
systematic review Koenig (2012) found the majority (68%) of studies that
assessed religiosity and physical activity in adults reported a
significant positive correlation. The measurement of physical activity
in future studies that assess the relations between religiosity, HRQOL,
and BMI status would be valuable to further elucidate mechanisms
underlying the negative association between religiosity and physical
functioning found in the present study.
Overall, we found religion and BMI explained a relatively small
amount of variability in our model. One explanation for the low amount
of variability explained by BMI is the age of our sample. Since the
deleterious effects of overweight/obesity tend to be more pronounced
over time, it is possible that in our sample of young adults elevated
weight status was not a major stressor. It will be important for future
research to replicate our findings in samples of middle and older-aged
adults where it would be anticipated that overweight/obese would be
associated with greater health problems (e.g., hypertension,
cardiovascular disease, stroke).
With regard to the small amount of variability explained by
religiosity, it is possible that effects of religion on HRQOL occur
indirectly through an in-between factor that was not accounted for in
our model. For example, Stolzfus & Farkas (2012) found the
association between daily stress and alcohol use was moderated by
positive religious coping among female university students (Stoltzfus
& Farkas, 2012). We did not explicitly measure religious coping in
the present study. One of the criticisms of the religiosity-health
research has been lack of a standard measure of religiosity (Hill &
Hood, 1999). Studies in this area have generally utilized measures of
religious attendance/religious media practice, religious salience,
frequency of prayer, religious identification, or religious consolation
(Cline & Ferraro, 2006; Kim, Sobal, & Wethington, 2003). In the
present study, the two religiosity items (How important is religious
faith in shaping how you live your daily life, How often do you attend
religious services) were strongly correlated. Thus, instead of using the
variables separately, we created a single religiosity variable. While
our single religiosity variable focused on importance of religious faith
in shaping daily life and attendance at religious services, it will be
important for future research to replicate our findings using other
indicators of religiosity such as religious coping, religious media
practice, and frequency of prayer.
Limitations
There were a number of limitations in the present study. The sample
was made up of predominantly Caucasian, young adult females who
self-identified as Protestant Christian. Thus, our findings may not
generalize to other populations. The cross-sectional and correlational
design of our study limited us from inferring causation. In addition, we
did not have information on the socioeconomic status of our
participants, and as a result, we were not able to control for this
variable in our statistical analysis.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the distress-deterrent model demonstrated the best
overall fit in the present study. Among our sample of young adults, BMI
status and religiosity had independent (and opposite) influences on
emotional, social, and work/school health-related quality of life. The
current study may serve as a model for future research that aims to
understand how religious practice can influence people's reaction
to stress using a comparative model study design.
Notes
(1) The weighted mean difference (WMD) is the average value after
pooling results of individual studies (i.e., each study's
contribution to the mean difference is weighted by sample size). This
effect size is appropriate when all the studies in a meta-analysis use
the same instrument, which was the case in the Ul-Haq et al.
meta-analyses.
(2) The term suppressor is used differently in these models than
how it is typically defined statistically.
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Christine Limbers is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University. Her research focuses
on the assessment and validation of neurocognitive and patient-reported
outcomes in youth and young adults.
Ashley Teasdale is a Clinical Psychology Doctoral student at Baylor
University. Her research interests focus on health outcomes and coping
mechanisms used by families who have a member with a chronic health
condition.
A. Alexander Beaujean is an Associate Professor in the Department
of Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University. His research
focuses on the application of quantitative methods to study human
variability, especially as it relates to cognitive ability and health
outcomes.
Christine A. Limbers
Ashley Teasdale
A. Alexander Beaujean
Baylor University
Address correspondence to Christine A. Limbers, Ph.D., Associate
Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University,
One Bear Place #97334, Waco, TX 76798; Christine_Limbers@baylor.edu.
Caption: Figure 1. Alternative models for how religion relates to
stress and health
Table 1
Sample Demographic Information (n=264).
Variable n/Mean (%/SD)
Age (years) 19.11 (1.04)
Range 17-23
Female 225 (85.23)
Missing (%) 1 (0.38)
Race/Ethnicity
Caucasian 158 (59.85)
Black 37 (14.02)
Hispanic 32 (12.11)
Asian 22 (8.35)
Multi-racial 9 (3.41)
Other 5 (1.89)
Missing 1 (0.38)
How important is religious faith in shaping your
daily life?
Extremely important 87 (33.00)
Very 78 (29.55)
Somewhat 63 (23.86)
Not very 29 (10.98)
Not important at all 7 (2.65)
How often do you attend religious services?
Never 22 (8.33)
A few times a year 33 (12.50)
Many times a year 17 (6.44)
Once a month 17 (6.44)
2-3 times a month 43 (16.29)
Once a week 71 (26.89)
More than once a week 61 (23.11)
What religion best describes you?
Protestant Christian 180 (68.18)
Catholic Christian 58 (21.97)
Hindu 6 (2.27)
Muslim/Islamic 4 (1.52)
Buddhist 3 (1.10)
Agnostic/Atheist/Non-Religious 5 (1.89)
Deist 1 (0.38)
Other (Not specified) 7 (2.70)
BMI 23.16 (4.14)
Range 15.30-45.20
Missing 2 (0.76)
BMI Category
Underweight 13 (4.92)
Normal 186 (70.45)
Overweight 47 (17.80)
Obese 16 (6.06)
PedsQL Scale
Physical Functioning 83.18 (13.72)
Emotional Functioning 69.49 (19.04)
Social Functioning 88.84 (13.52)
Work/School Functioning 76.22 (16.96)
Religiosity (factor score) 0.00 (0.92)
Table 2
Zero-order correlations
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
1 Age 1.00
2 BMI 0.07 1.00
3 Sex -0.01 0.16 1.00
4 Physical 0.01 -0.14 0.14 1.00
Functioning
5 Emotional -0.03 -0.15 0.14 0.45 1.00
Functioning
6 Social 0.05 -0.17 -0.02 0.52 0.54
Functioning
7 Work/School 0.03 -0.10 0.06 0.45 0.47
Functioning
8 Reliniositv -0.05 0.02 -0.14 0.03 0.09
9 Black 0.00 0.05 -0.03 0.01 0.00
10 Asian -0.02 -0.04 0.35 -0.05 0.04
11 Hispanic 0.02 0.13 0.06 -0.02 -0.13
12 Mixed -0.10 0.07 0.08 0.03 0.00
13 Other -0.04 -0.12 -0.06 0.04 0.12
14 Catholic -0.03 0.13 0.06 0.07 0.03
15 Non-Religious 0.04 0.04 0.08 -0.14 -0.08
16 Non-Christian 0.01 -0.16 0.09 0.03 0.05
17 Religiosity x -0.03 0.09 -0.05 0.00 0.02
BMI interaction
SDs 1.04 4.14 0.35 13.69 19.00
Means 19.11 23.16 1.14 83.18 69.49
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
1 Age
2 BMI
3 Sex
4 Physical
Functioning
5 Emotional
Functioning
6 Social 1.00
Functioning
7 Work/School 0.42 1.00
Functioning
8 Reliniositv 0.14 0.05 1.00
9 Black 0.06 0.10 0.03 1.00
10 Asian -0.09 0.03 -0.05 -0.12 1.00
11 Hispanic -0.06 -0.07 -0.19 -0.15 -0.11
12 Mixed 0.02 0.03 0.01 -0.08 -0.06
13 Other 0.07 0.09 -0.07 -0.06 -0.04
14 Catholic 0.05 0.00 -0.12 -0.08 -0.03
15 Non-Religious -0.15 -0.09 -0.45 -0.04 0.12
16 Non-Christian 0.03 0.03 -0.16 -0.09 0.31
17 Religiosity x 0.10 0.09 0.60 0.05 0.03
BMI interaction
SDs 13.49 16.93 0.92 0.35 0.28
Means 88.85 76.22 0.00 0.14 0.28
11. 12. 13.
1 Age
2 BMI
3 Sex
4 Physical
Functioning
5 Emotional
Functioning
6 Social
Functioning
7 Work/School
Functioning
8 Reliniositv
9 Black
10 Asian
11 Hispanic 1.00
12 Mixed -0.07 1.00
13 Other -0.05 -0.03 1.00
14 Catholic 0.34 -0.05 -0.07
15 Non-Religious 0.13 0.05 -0.03
16 Non-Christian -0.03 -0.04 0.35
17 Religiosity x -0.07 -0.04 -0.10
BMI interaction
SDs 0.33 0.18 0.14
Means 0.12 0.03 0.02
Note. Correlations calculated using full information maximum
likelihood. Race variables were dummy-coded with Caucasian as the
reference group. Religion variables were dummy-coded with Protestant
as the reference group.
Table 3
Model Fit Results.
Model AICc AICc Weight aBIC aBIC Weight
Without Covariates
Suppressor/Health 10747 0.05 10752 0.03
Effects
Distress-Deterrent 10740 0.91 10745 0.95
Prevention 10747 0.05 10752 0.03
Moderator 12146 <0.01 12157 <0.01
With Covariates
Suppressor/Health 11547 <0.01 11534 <0.01
Effects
Distress-Deterrent 11421 1.00 11438 1.00
Prevention 11476 <0.01 11463 <0.01
Moderator 12841 <0.01 12828 <0.01
Note. AICc: Corrected Akaike's information criterion, aBIC: Sample-
size adjusted Bayesian information criterion. AICc and aBIC weights
are defined in Equation 1.
[mathematical expression not reproducible], (1)
where [phi] is the information criterion index (i.e., AICc, aBIC)
and [[DELTA].sub.i] is the difference in [phi]
between model i and the "best model" (i.e., model with lowest value
[phi]). [[DELTA].sub.i][phi] is defined as
[[DELTA].sub.i][phi] = [[phi].sub.i] - min([phi]), (2)
where min([phi]) is the lowest information criterion value of
all the models fit.
Table 4
Path Coefficients for Distress-Deterrent Model
Predictor Unstandardized Standard
Path Coefficient Error
Outcome: Physical Functioning
BMI -0.48 0.22
Religiosity -0.33 1.00
Race (a)
Black 0.91 2.55
Asian -1.61 3.58
Hispanic -0.55 2.76
Multi-racial 4.11 3.40
Other 2.50 3.75
Religion (b)
Catholic 2.55 2.40
Non-Religious -8.57 4.73
Non-Christian 0.56 3.43
Age 0.48 0.78
Outcome: Emotional Functioning
BMI -0.65 0.24
Religiosity 1.96 1.55
Race (a)
Black 0.28 3.45
Asian 1.91 4.42
Hispanic -6.66 4.22
Multi-racial 1.05 4.21
Other 15.51 5.87
Religion (b)
Catholic 4.95 3.35
Non-Religious -0.10 5.14
Non-Christian 0.68 6.94
Age <0.01 1.10
Outcome: Social Functioning
BMI -0.58 0.23
Religiosity 1.95 1.08
Race (a)
Black 2.39 2.42
Asian -4.44 3.65
Hispanic -1.64 3.09
Multi-racial 3.60 3.20
Other 4.01 4.51
Religion (b)
Catholic 3.77 2.46
Non-Religious -3.27 4.03
Non-Christian 3.55 3.35
Age 1.04 0.69
Outcome: School/Work Functioning
BMI -0.40 0.25
Religiosity 0.44 1.34
Race (a)
Black 5.44 3.20
Asian 3.72 3.71
Hispanic -1.33 3.82
Multi-racial 5.44 3.80
Other 12.41 5.98
Religion (b)
Catholic 1.41 3.13
Non-Religious -5.77 4.25
Non-Christian -2.28 8.44
Age 0.96 1.04
Predictor Standardized [R.sup.2]
Path Coefficient
Outcome: Physical Functioning 0.05
BMI -0.15
Religiosity -0.02
Race (a)
Black 0.02
Asian -0.03
Hispanic -0.01
Multi-racial 0.06
Other 0.03
Religion (b)
Catholic 0.08
Non-Religious -0.14
Non-Christian 0.01
Age 0.04
Outcome: Emotional Functioning 0.06
BMI -0.14
Religiosity 0.10
Race (a)
Black 0.01
Asian 0.03
Hispanic -0.11
Multi-racial 0.01
Other 0.11
Religion (b)
Catholic 0.11
Non-Religious <0.01
Non-Christian 0.01
Age <0.01
Outcome: Social Functioning 0.09
BMI -0.18
Religiosity 0.13
Race (a)
Black 0.06
Asian -0.09
Hispanic -0.04
Multi-racial 0.05
Other 0.04
Religion (b)
Catholic 0.12
Non-Religious -0.05
Non-Christian 0.06
Age 0.08
Outcome: School/Work Functioning 0.04
BMI -0.10
Religiosity 0.02
Race (a)
Black 0.11
Asian 0.06
Hispanic -0.03
Multi-racial 0.06
Other 0.10
Religion (b)
Catholic 0.04
Non-Religious -0.07
Non-Christian -0.03
Age 0.06
Note. Non-religious: Atheists, Agnostics, Deists, and those that did
not specify a religion. Non-Christian: Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist.
Intercepts for the models were 84.966 (Physical), 83.498 (Emotional),
81.529 (Social), 66.065 (School)
(a): Dummy-coded variable with Caucasian as the reference group.
(b): Dummy-coded variable with Protestant as the reference group.
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