Does Public and Private Religiosity Have a Moderating Effect on Depression? a Bi-Racial Study of Elders in the American South

Husaini, Baqar A.; Blasi, Anthony J.; Miller, Oscar

doi:10.2190/f5mt-rtyh-7xr1-tfqu

Cited by 41 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Some researchers suggest that religious involvement may be associated with lower depression rates by means of the encouragement of coping strategies through spiritual, intellectual, and social avenues (Husaini, Blasi, & Miller, 1999). Still other researchers have found no such effect in both cross-sectional studies (Courtenay, Poon, Martin, Clayton, & Johnson, 1992;Spendlove, West, & Stanish, 1984) and longitudinal studies (Bosworth, Park, McQuoid, Hays, & Steffens, 2003;Braam, Beekman, Deeg, Smit, & van Tilburg, 1997).…”

Section: Nih-pa Author Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Church Attendance and New Episodes of Major Depression in a Community Study of Older Adults: The Cache County Study

Norton

Singh

Skoog

et al. 2008

The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences an

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We examined the relation between church attendance, membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), and major depressive episode, in a population-based study of aging and dementia in Cache County, Utah. Participants included 2,989 nondemented individuals aged between 65 and 100 years who were interviewed initially in 1995 to 1996 and again in 1998 to 1999. LDS church members reported twice the rate of major depression that non-LDS members did (odds ratio = 2.56, 95% confidence interval = 1.07-6.08). Individuals attending church weekly or more often had a significantly lower risk for major depression. After controlling for demographic and health variables and the strongest predictor of future episodes of depression, a prior depression history, we found that church attendance more often than weekly remained a significant protectant (odds ratio = 0.51, 95% confidence interval = 0.28-0.92). Results suggest that there may be a threshold of church attendance that is necessary for a person to garner long-term protection from depression. We discuss sociological factors relevant to LDS culture.

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Section: Nih-pa Author Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Church Attendance and New Episodes of Major Depression in a Community Study of Older Adults: The Cache County Study

Norton

Singh

Skoog

et al. 2008

The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences an

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“…50 Despi te the psychometri c l i mi tati ons i nherent i n such measures of rel i gi ous i nvol vement, most studi es that have assessed the rel ati onshi p betw een organi zati onal rel i gi ous i nvol vement and depressi on have found a smal l negati ve associ ati on. Of 29 studi es that exami ned the cross-secti onal associ ati on of a measure of organi zati onal rel i gi ous i nvol vement (usual l y si ngl e-i tem measures assessi ng frequency of church attendance), 24 of them 14,17,21,[23][24][25]30,32,37,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65] find people involved in a religious organization to have l ow er l evel s of depressi ve symptoms. They al so are l ess l i kel y to be di agnosed w i th depressi ve di sorders or score i n the cl i ni cal range on di chotomi zed measures of depressi on.…”

Section: Organizational Religious Involvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typi cal l y, such measures have been si ngl e-i tem i ndi cators, [24][25][26]53,58,63,67,71 al though some researchers have empl oyed mul ti -i tem measures w hose rel i abi li ty can be esti mated. 17,54,55,57,61,64 By far, most studi es suggest that pri vate rel i gi ous acti vi ty mai ntai ns a tenuous rel ati onshi p w i th depressi on. M ost studi es fi nd both the zero-order and mul ti vari ate associ ati ons to be smal l , regardl ess of w hether pri vate rel i gi ous acti vi ty i s measured w i th si ngl e-i tem or mul ti -i tem measures.…”

Section: Organizational Religious Involvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion and depression: a review of the literature

McCullough¹,

Larson

1999

Twin res.

141

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We r evi ew ed data fr om appr oxi matel y 80 publ i shed and unpubl i shed studi es that exami ned the association of religious affiliation or involvement with depressi ve symptoms or depr essi ve di sor der. I n these studi es, r el i gi on w as measur ed as r el i gi ous affiliation; general religious involvement; organizational religious involvement; prayer or private religious involvement; religious salience and motivation; or religious beliefs. People from some religious affiliations appear to have an el evated r i sk for depr essi ve symptoms and depr essi ve di sor der, and peopl e w i th no religious affiliation are at an elevated risk in comparison with people who are religiously affiliated. People with high levels of general religious involvement, organizational religious involvement, religious salience, and intrinsic religious motivation are at reduced risk for depr essi ve symptoms and depr essi ve di sor der s. Pr i vate r el i gi ous acti vi ty and par ti cul ar r el i gi ous bel i efs appear to bear no r el i abl e r el ati onshi p w i th depr essi on. Peopl e w i th hi gh l evel s of extr i nsi c r el i gi ous moti vati on ar e at i ncr eased r i sk for depr essi ve symptoms. A l though these associ ati ons tend to be consi stent, they ar e modest and ar e substanti al l y r educed i n mul ti var i ate r esear ch. Longi tudi nal r esear ch i s spar se, but suggests that some for ms of r el i gi ous i nvol vement mi ght exer t a pr otecti ve effect agai nst the i nci dence and per si stence of depr essi ve symptoms or di sor der s. The exi sti ng r esear ch i s suffi ci ent to encour age fur ther i nvesti gati on of the associ ati ons of r el i gi on w i th depr essi ve symptoms and di sor der. Rel i gi on shoul d be measur ed w i th hi gher methodol ogi cal standar ds than those that have been accepted i n sur vey r esear ch to date. Keyw or ds: rel i gi on, rel i gi ous i nvol vement, psychi atri c epi demi ol ogy, depressi on, depressi ve di sorder, affecti ve di stress, measurement, psychometri cs Depressi on i s one of the most common mental di sorders. Wi thi n thei r l i feti me, betw een 10 and 25% of w omen and 5-12% of men will meet the cri teri a for major depressi ve di sorder, w hi l e at any gi ven poi nt i n ti me betw een 5 and 12% of w omen and 2-3% of men meet the cri teri a for major depressi ve di sorder.1 Depressi on i s expensi ve fi nanci al l y and i n terms of human l i fe. It appears that medi cal care for depressi on i s on the ri se. Pi ncus et al 2 revi ew evi dence i ndi cati ng that vi si ts to physi ci ans for depressi on i ncreased from 11 million in 1985 to 20.4 million in 1993-1994, and vi si ts that i ncl uded treatment w i th an anti depressant medi cati on i ncreased from 5.3 million to 12.4 million in the same ti me frame. In addi ti on, peopl e w i th major depressi on have a substanti al l y i ncreased ri sk for use of hospi tal and medi cal servi ces, sui ci de attempts, and earl y death. 3Rel i gi on i s a vari abl e that i s not commonl y di scussed i n...

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“…Some investigators have argued that the moderating effect on depression by these religious orienting systems could be due, at least in part, to their innate social support character (Ellison et al, 1989). However, when this hypothesis has been tested, the results have not been conclusive (Idler et al, 1992;Braam et al, 1997a;Koenig et al, 1997;Braam et al, 1998;Husaini et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%