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Philadelphia, PA, USA. For many, religious activity changes between childhood and adulthood. A new study out of Temple University finds this could affect one’s mental health.
According to Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active.
Conversely, men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression when compared to men who had always been religiously active.
The study expands on previous research in the field by analyzing the relationship between mental health — anxiety, depression and alcohol dependence or abuse — and spirituality. The analysis compares current and past levels, said Maselko, who conducted the research when she was at Harvard University.
Religious activity and lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorder. Joanna Maselko and Stephen Buka. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Volume 43, Number 1, Pages 1-86. ISSN 0933-7954; 1433-9285 (Online).
“One’s lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness,” said Maselko, an assistant professor of public health and co-author of the study in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
Maselko offers one possible explanation for the gender differences in the relationship between religious activity and mental health.
“Women are simply more integrated into the social networks of their religious communities. When they stop attending religious services, they lose access to that network and all its potential benefits."
"Men may not be as integrated into the religious community in the first place and so may not suffer the negative consequences of leaving.”
In the study sample, comprising 718 adults, a majority of men and women changed their level of religious activity between childhood and adulthood, which was critical information for the researchers.
“A person’s current level of spirituality is only part of the story. We can only get a better understanding of the relationship between health and spirituality by knowing a person’s lifetime religious history,” Maselko said.
Out of the 278 women in the group, 39 percent (N=109) had always been religiously active and 51 percent (N=141) had not been active since childhood. About 7 percent of the women who have always been religiously active met the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder compared to 21 percent of women who had stopped being religiously active.
“Everyone has some spirituality, whether it is an active part of their life or not; whether they are agnostic or atheist or just ‘non-practicing.’ These choices potentially have health implications, similar to the way that one’s social networks do,” Maselko said.
Funding was provided by NIMH Training Grant in Psychiatric Epidemiology.
Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., is an Assistant Professor at Temple University. She is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist whose research focuses on two areas: the socioeconomic determinants of mental health in the global context and the relationship between religious engagement/spirituality and health.
Religious activity and lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorder. Joanna Maselko and Stephen Buka. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Volume 43, Number 1, Pages 1-86. ISSN 0933-7954; 1433-9285 (Online).
Abstract
Background. There is growing evidence that current religious activity is associated with less psychological distress, yet research on clinical levels of psychopathology along with lifetime patterns of religious activity remains limited.
Method. In this study, we used data on 718 participants from the Providence, RI, cohort of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project, to test for the association between lifetime patterns of religious service attendance frequency, subjective religiosity, and lifetime psychiatric diagnosis.
Results. For women, but not men, a changing pattern of service attendance (having stopped or started attending services since childhood) was associated with increased lifetime rates of generalized anxiety, and marginally increased rates of alcohol abuse/dependence (OR for generalized anxiety: 2.71, 95% CI: 1.11–6.62; OR for alcohol abuse/dependence = 1.97, 95% CI: 0.92–4.20) compared to a stable pattern of continuous religious service attendance. Conversely, men who changed their frequency of religious service attendance were less likely to have ever met diagnostic criteria for major depression (OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.31–0.83) as compared to those who had always been religiously active. The rates of psychiatric illness among those who reported never attending religious services were not statistically different from those who either had always been religiously active or those who reported changing patterns of attendance.
Conclusion. These findings suggest that lifetime religious activity patterns are associated with psychiatric illnesses, with different patterns observed for men and women.
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Conversely, men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression when compared to men who had always been religiously active. 
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