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Religion, Social Connectedness, and Xenophobic Responses to Ebola.

ABSTRACT: This study examined the role of religion in xenophobic responses to the threat of Ebola. Religious communities often offer members strong social ties and social support, which may help members cope with psychological and physical threat, including global threats like Ebola. Our analysis of a nationally representative sample in the U.S. (N = 1,000) found that overall, the more vulnerable to Ebola people felt, the more they exhibited xenophobic responses, but this relationship was moderated by importance of religion. Those who perceived religion as more important in their lives exhibited weaker xenophobic reactions than those who perceived religion as less important. Furthermore, social connectedness measured by collectivism explained the moderating role of religion, suggesting that higher collectivism associated with religion served as a psychological buffer. Religious people showed attenuated threat responses because they had a stronger social system that may offer resources for its members to cope with psychological and physical threats. The current research highlights that different cultural groups react to increased threats in divergent ways.

SUBMITTER: Chuang R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8311165 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Religion, Social Connectedness, and Xenophobic Responses to Ebola.

Chuang Roxie R Eom Kimin K Kim Heejung S HS

Frontiers in psychology 20210712

This study examined the role of religion in xenophobic responses to the threat of Ebola. Religious communities often offer members strong social ties and social support, which may help members cope with psychological and physical threat, including global threats like Ebola. Our analysis of a nationally representative sample in the U.S. (<i>N</i> = 1,000) found that overall, the more vulnerable to Ebola people felt, the more they exhibited xenophobic responses, but this relationship was moderated ...[more]

PMID: 34322063

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Project description:BackgroundPoor social connectedness has been identified as a risk factor for poor mental health but there is a lack of standardisation in how it is measured. This systematic review aimed to identify suitable measures of social connectedness for use in UK adult general populations.MethodsSearches were undertaken in two stages to identify: (1) measures of social connectedness from review articles and grey literature and (2) studies reporting on the psychometric properties of the identified measures. Grey literature and five databases were searched: MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO; CINAHL and Web of Science. Studies based on UK adult general populations (16-65 years) or other English language speaking countries with similar cultures (US, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand) were included. Psychometric evidence was extracted relating to six general domains: conceptual model, content validity, reliability, construct validity, scoring and interpretability, and respondent burden and presentation. A narrative synthesis summarised these psychometric properties.ResultsStage (1) 2,396 studies were retrieved and, 24 possible measures of social connectedness were identified; stage (2) 6,218 studies were identified reporting on psychometrics of identified measures and 22 studies were included. These studies provided psychometric evidence for 10 measures, and we did not find psychometric studies for the other identified measures. Six measures (6/10, 60%) reported assessing loneliness and four (4/10, 40%) reported assessing social support but there was a degree of overlap between the assessments of each concept. There was good evidence of reliability across measures, 90% (9/10) had adequate internal consistency, but evidence of content validity was only available for one scale. Five measures (5/10, 50%) reported on at least half of the psychometric criteria, and these were: UCLA-3 (for loneliness), and MSPSS, F-SozU K-6, SPS-10 and SPS-5 (for social support).ConclusionsThis review identified ten social connectedness measures, and identified UCLA-3, MSPSS, F-SozUK-6, SPS-10, and SPS-5 as having the most robust psychometric properties for the UK adult population. Further testing is required to establish content validity, and to clarify the definition and conceptualisation of social connectedness, to enable standardisation in the approach to measuring social connectedness.

Dataset Information

Religion, Social Connectedness, and Xenophobic Responses to Ebola.

Publications

Religion, Social Connectedness, and Xenophobic Responses to Ebola.

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