title: Subjective religiosity, church attendance, and depression in the National Survey of American Life.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: George 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.
authors.forename: Darrell L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.forename: Jason Q
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Purnell
authors.forename: Alexis E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: Evander
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001741:Black or African American