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The following is excerpted from the Deseret News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Youths who regularly attend religious services, pray or meditate may get a well-being boost that sticks around into young adulthood, according to a new Harvard study that joins a body of research showing benefits from religiosity.
Senior author and epidemiologist Tyler J. VanderWeele knows most people don’t make decisions about religion based on health, but rather on beliefs, values, experiences and relationships. “However, for parents and children who already hold religious beliefs, such religious and spiritual practices could be encouraged both for their own sake as well as to promote health and well-being,” said Vanderweele, a professor in Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study, by VanderWeele and Harvard research scientist Ying Chen, is published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Among the findings, youths who attended religious services at least weekly as children and adolescents were:
- About 18 percent more apt to report higher happiness between ages 23-30 than those who didn’t.
- 29 percent more likely to be volunteers.
- 33 percent less likely to use illegal drugs.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
