Violence against Women, Religion and Health

Using longitudinal datasets (Add Health Waves I, II, and IV), we examine the causal relationship between victims’ general health and religiosity as mediated by sexual assault victimization. Building upon the established literature linking religion and health, this research focuses on changes in three key aspects of religiosity, occurrence of prayer, religious service attendance, and religious salience after experiencing forced sex. Consensual sex improves the general health of respondents, while forced sex decreases the general health of the respondents. Religiosity buffers the negative effect of forced sex on respondents. In other words, while members of the general population have improved over-all health as they pray more and view religion as being more important in their lives, sexual assault victims experience even steeper improvements in their general health. Religious service attendance maintains a negative effect on victims’ health. That is, service attendance improves the general population’s health but harms victims’ health. When mental health is added as a control variable, the negative effect of forced sex is attenuated. There is a difference between urban and non-urban respondents. Compared with urban survey takers, non-urban respondents experience better health. This study is one of the first that uses a large random sample with a longitudinal design. As such, this article contributes to the literature by providing greater clarity concerning the function of religion on victims’ health.