Depressive symptoms and religious orientation: examining the relationship between religiosity and depression within the context of other correlates of depression
J. Maltby et L. Day, Depressive symptoms and religious orientation: examining the relationship between religiosity and depression within the context of other correlates of depression, PERS INDIV, 28(2), 2000, pp. 383-393
The role of cognitive, personality and social variables to explain the rela
tionship between religious orientation and aspects of psychological well-be
ing is often speculated at a theoretical level, but tends not to be explore
d empirically. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship
between religious orientation and depressive symptoms among cognitive, per
sonality and social correlates of depression. A total of 360 (172 males, 18
8 females) English University students completed measures of depressive sym
ptoms, religious orientation, anxiety, neuroticism, coping style, attributi
on style and self-esteem. Among men and women, depressive symptoms are sign
ificantly associated with higher scores on the measures of extrinsic-social
and extrinsic personal religious orientation, neuroticism, attribution sty
le, wish and avoidance coping; and lower scores on the measures of intrinsi
c religious orientation, optimism, self-esteem and problem-focussed and sup
port seeking coping. A multiple regression shows that, among men, all three
religious orientations, and among women, two of the three religious orient
ations (intrinsic, extrinsic-social), represent separate dimensions that ar
e important in accounting for unique variance in depression within the cont
ext of a number of cognitive, social and personality explanations of depres
sion. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.