Study: Drop in church attendance drove deaths of despair

 

Study: Drop in church attendance drove deaths of despair Curated for you byCP Editors Good afternoon! It's Thursday, Jan. 19, and today's headlines include research on "deaths of despair" in the late 20th century, a Tenn. church that is asking for prayers following a plane crash that killed four congregants and seriously injured their senior pastor, former President Donald Trump's remarks about Evangelical leaders, and the opening of "The Horse and His Boy" at the Museum of the Bible's World Stage Theater. A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that deaths by drugs, alcohol and suicide—known as "deaths of despair"—dramatically increased among middle-aged white Americans in the late 20th century due to lower participation in organized religion that was preceded by a repeal of blue laws that prohibited commercial activities on Sunday.  "We know of no other cultural phenomenon involving such large, widespread changes in participation prior to the initial rise in U.S. mortality, nor do we know of any other phenomenon that matches the seemingly idiosyncratic patterns observed for mortality: seen for both men and women, but not in other countries, and in both rural and urban settings, but driven primarily by middle-aged, less educated white individuals," the researchers explained. The findings contribute to previous research on deaths of despair, which similarly examined patterns and contributing factors to such deaths.  In a 2017 follow-up study to their 2015 research, Princeton University's Anne Case and her Nobel Prize winner husband, Angus Deaton, suggested that poor mortality among middle-aged working-class whites might have been triggered by the "progressively worsening labor market opportunities at the time of entry for whites with low levels of education."  Middle-aged white Americans with a high school diploma or less have experienced increasing midlife mortality since the late-1990s due to "deaths of despair," the study said, which also noted a slowdown in progress against death from heart disease and cancer as a contributing factor. Continue reading. P.S.Looking for a way to close out your week? Stay in the know with In Case You Missed It, a Friday-only newsletter that features a roundup of the top stories of the week and a selection of faith-based highlights. Subscribe here.