Subjective Religiosity, Church Attendance, and Depression in the National Survey of American Life

Studies have consistently indicated that blacks report lower rates of depression than whites. This study examined the association between religion and depression and whether religion explained lower rates of depression among blacks compared to whites. Data were drawn from the National Survey of Amer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health
Main Author: Hudson, Darrell L. (Author)
Contributors: Purnell, Jason Q. (Other) ; Duncan, Alexis E. (Other) ; Baker, Evander (Other)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2015]
In: Journal of religion and health
Further subjects:B ethnicity / Race
B Depression
B Church Attendance
B Religiosity
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Studies have consistently indicated that blacks report lower rates of depression than whites. This study examined the association between religion and depression and whether religion explained lower rates of depression among blacks compared to whites. Data were drawn from the National Survey of American Life, a multi-ethnic sample of African Americans, Caribbean Blacks, and non-Hispanic whites (n = 6,082). African Americans and Caribbean Blacks reported higher mean levels of subjective religiosity than whites, but there were no significant differences in levels of church attendance. African Americans (OR 0.54; CI 0.45-0.65) and Caribbean Blacks (OR 0.66; CI 0.48-0.91) reported significantly lower odds of depression than whites. Differences in subjective religiosity and church attendance did not account for the association between major depression and African American and Caribbean Black race/ethnicity relative to whites. More research is needed to examine whether there are other factors that could protect against the development of depression.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-014-9850-2