Relationship between maternal church attendance and adolescent mental health and social functioning

Objective: This study compared maternal attendance at religious services wi th standard demographic characteristics such as race, type of religion, and mother's education in terms of their relative association with the behavio ral and social functioning of young adolescents. Methods: The Child Health and Illness Profile-Adolescent Edition and the Children's Depression Invent ory were used to screen 445 youths age 11 through 13 who were randomly sele cted from two public middle schools in Baltimore. Based on the findings, th e investigators selected a sample of 143 youths in which approximately two- thirds were at risk of having a psychiatric disorder and the remaining thir d were unlikely to have a psychiatric disorder The youths and their mothers were interviewed at home to determine the mothers' frequency of participat ion in religious services and the youths' self-reported health and mental h ealth status and social role functioning. Results: Youths whose mothers att ended religious services at least once a week had greater overall satisfact ion with their lives, more involvement with their families, and better skil ls in solving health-related problems and felt greater support from friends compared with youths whose mothers had lower levels of participation in re ligious services. Maternal attendance at religious services had a strong as sociation with the youths' outcome in overall satisfaction with health and perceived social support from friends, although family income was the stron gest predictor of five other aspects of functioning, including academic per formance. Conclusions: Frequent maternal participation in religious set-vic es was associated with healthy functioning and well-being in this sample of young adolescents. This association is as important as or more important t han associations involving other traditional demographic variables, with th e exception of family income.