How Religion Frames Health Norms: A Structural Theory Approach

• Main Author: Elias Mpofu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-04-01
• Series: Religions
• Subjects: health; religion adherents; knowledge values; secular community; faith-based; interpretive norms
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/9/4/119

Religious communities influence health-related behaviors of adherents in important ways for public health promotion. Questions remain about the processes involved and resultant health promotion actions of the religious adherents. This study applied a structural theory analysis to understand the ways by which religious adherents adopt and enact health norms. Structural theory proposes systemic influences on behavioral predispositions at the latent, interpretive, and elective levels. Latent influences on health norms occur through a process of social mediation, predisposing the religious adherents to impute faith-aligned meanings to their health norms. Religious adherents also might adopt interpretation to guide their health norms in those grey areas in which faith-based guidelines are not apparent or open to contestation. Moreover, religious adherents may elect to construct health norms combining faith-aligned and prevailing secular community standards. Public health promotion with religious adherents should address their faith-aligned health beliefs while also addressing their evolving personal health norms.