From Washington U: Subjective Religiosity, Church Attendance, and Depression in the National Survey of American Life

J Relig Health. 2014 Mar 11. [Epub ahead of print]

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

Hudson DL1, Purnell JQ, Duncan AE, Baker E.

Author information

• 1George Warren Brown School of Social Work and Institute for Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive Campus, Box 1196, Saint Louis, MO, 63130, USA, dhudson@wustl.edu.

Abstract

Studies have consistently indicated that blacks report lower rates of depression than whites. This study examined the association between religionand 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.