Citation

Blazer DG, Hays JC, Musick MA. Aging Ment. Health 2002; 6(1): 47-54.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences & Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13607860120101086

PMID

11827622

Abstract

Reference groups, such as religious groups, are thought to provide individuals with normative frameworks which set and maintain standards for them. Persons who belong to a reference group, yet do not comply with the standards of that group, i.e. non-conformists, are thought to experience cognitive dissonance which in turn may lead to psychological discomfort and adverse physical health outcomes. In a community-based, racially mixed sample of elderly Baptists in the rural south of the United States (n = 1155), where Baptist churches proscribe alcohol use, we studied whether alcohol use was associated with adverse physical and mental health assessments. No relationship was found between non-conformist behavior among rural Baptists and adverse health outcomes for either Whites or African-Americans in controlled analyses. More frequent church attendance among African-American Baptists, but not for White Baptists, was strongly associated with abstinence from alcohol.

Language: en