It could be a chicken-and egg problem. It's hard to make much
of the causal factors because other studies provide conflicting evidence, and
it seems in some cases that there are confounding factors at work (for
instance, one study linked low depression risk with the participants'
satisfaction with their close relationships). It certainly doesn't look like
religion itself is the main factor so much as things like social involvement
and personal optimism, which makes it all the more interesting that now we have
a study showing the opposite effect.
Examples of other
studies with different results than the OP's can be found below, but otherwise
just skip to the last two for a study that looks for other factors and for a
review of the literature as a whole:
- Religious attendance, spirituality, and major depression in Canada: a 14-year follow-up study.
- Religiosity and major depression in adults at high risk: a ten-year prospective study.
- Longitudinal associations of importance of religion and frequency of service attendance with depression risk among adolescents in Nova Scotia.
- The association between spiritual and religious involvement and depressive symptoms in a Canadian population.
- Religious involvement and risk of major depression in a prospective nationwide study of African American adults.
- Religiosity and resilience in persons at high risk for major depression.
- Family religion and psychopathology in children of depressed mothers: ten-year follow-up.
- Protective associations of importance of religion and frequency of service attendance with depression risk, suicidal behaviours and substance use in adolescents in Nova Scotia, Canada.
- Religion, spirituality, and health in medically ill hospitalized older patients.
Most interesting are the last two, and I'll add quotations from
them to indicate the most interesting stuff. The first one points out that it's
not so much spirituality itself as factors like social support and general
optimism that matter, and spirituality simply works through those factors. The
second one points out that, while there is a difference, it's not a strong one,
and the literature in general is not the tightest.
Although many studies suggest lower rates of depressive symptoms
in those who report greater spirituality, few have investigated the mechanisms
by which spirituality might relate to depressive symptoms... Spirituality was
indirectly related to depressive symptoms. More specifically, spirituality was
significantly associated with optimism and volunteering but not with social
support, and optimism, volunteering and perceived social support were significantly
associated with depressive symptoms. The
link between spirituality and depressive symptoms is indirect. The relationship
is mediated by optimism, volunteering, and social support. Findings
present research and practice implications.
We reviewed data from approximately 80 published and unpublished
studies that examined the association of religious affiliation or involvement with
depressive symptoms or depressive disorder... Although these associations tend to be consistent, they are modest
and are substantially reduced in multivariate research. Longitudinal
research is sparse, but suggests that some forms of religious involvement might
exert a protective effect against the incidence and persistence of depressive
symptoms or disorders. The existing research is sufficient to encourage further
investigation of the associations of religion with depressive symptoms and
disorder. Religion should be measured with higher methodological standards than
those that have been accepted in survey research to date.
The original study can be found here:
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