TY - JOUR
T1 - Religiousness and Depression
T2 - Evidence for a Main Effect and the Moderating Influence of Stressful Life Events
AU - Smith, Timothy B.
AU - McCullough, Michael E.
AU - Poll, Justin
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2003/7
Y1 - 2003/7
N2 - The association between religiousness and depressive symptoms was examined with meta-analytic methods across 147 independent investigations (N = 98,975). Across all studies, the correlation between religiousness and depressive symptoms was -.096, indicating that greater religiousness is mildly associated with fewer symptoms. The results were not moderated by gender, age, or ethnicity, but the religiousness-depression association was stronger in studies involving people who were undergoing stress due to recent life events. The results were also moderated by the type of measure of religiousness used in the study, with extrinsic religious orientation and negative religious coping (e.g., avoiding difficulties through religious activities, blaming God for difficulties) associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, the opposite direction of the overall findings.
AB - The association between religiousness and depressive symptoms was examined with meta-analytic methods across 147 independent investigations (N = 98,975). Across all studies, the correlation between religiousness and depressive symptoms was -.096, indicating that greater religiousness is mildly associated with fewer symptoms. The results were not moderated by gender, age, or ethnicity, but the religiousness-depression association was stronger in studies involving people who were undergoing stress due to recent life events. The results were also moderated by the type of measure of religiousness used in the study, with extrinsic religious orientation and negative religious coping (e.g., avoiding difficulties through religious activities, blaming God for difficulties) associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, the opposite direction of the overall findings.
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U2 - 10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.614
DO - 10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.614
M3 - Review article
C2 - 12848223
AN - SCOPUS:0141754075
VL - 129
SP - 614
EP - 636
JO - Psychological Bulletin
JF - Psychological Bulletin
SN - 0033-2909
IS - 4
ER -