"Moonies" get married: a psychiatric follow-up study of a charismatic religious sect.

A 3-year follow-up of longtime engaged members of the Unification Church revealed remarkable compliance with the sect's unusual marital commitments. Of 305 subjects, 95% were still active in the church and 85% had been married in the interim to mates designated by their religious leader. Their scores on a measure of psychological well-being remained below those of the general population, and members who deviated from the sect's expectations showed even greater distress. Furthermore, analysis revealed that affiliative ties with the sect apparently counteracted the distress produced by the unusual marital experience and help to explain compliance with the sect's unusual behavioral norms.