Religious engagement and antibody response to the COVID-19 vaccine

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

October 1, 2024

Summary:

This research examined religious engagement and subsequent antibody responses to the COVID-19 vaccine. Using publicly available data from the Understanding Society survey, we employed a longitudinal design. Between January 2016 and May 2018, respondents completed measures of religious belonging, frequency of attending religious services (i.e., extrinsic religiosity), and the difference religion made to their lives (i.e., intrinsic religiosity). A COVID-19 survey wave was collected in March 2021 and measured antibody responses to the COVID-19 vaccine via blood draw. A final sample of 746 adults [462 (61.9%) females, Mage = 61.94, SD = 19.07] was achieved. Mediation analyses (PROCESS, Model 4; Hayes, Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach, The Guildford Press, 2022; Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach; The Guildford Press) revealed one pathway through which religion and antibody responses to the COVID-19 vaccine are associated, namely via extrinsic factors—attendance at religious services. In contrast, intrinsic religious factors which is the difference religion can make to one's life, was not a significant mediator. Overall, this analysis provides evidence that behavioural enactment of religion matters to the effectiveness of vaccination and the management of public health crises. It also highlights the value of social resources associated with engagement in valued social groups—and in particular religious social groups—for public health.

Published in

British Journal of Social Psychology

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 63 , p.1844 -1855

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12759

ISSN

01446665

Subjects

Notes

Open Access

© 2024 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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