Are There Mental Health Benefits Related To Religion?

According to David Rosmarin and Harold Koenig in Handbook of Spirituality, Religion, and Mental Health (2020), there are, in fact, various mental health benefits when it comes to one's religious affiliation.

 

Social support stands as a mediator often proposed to explain the relationship between spirituality/religion and mental health since religious involvement is often social in nature.

 

However, evidence has varied (George, Ellison, & Larson, 2002).

 

Although spirituality/religion is usually associated with increased levels of general social support, it has often failed interests for mediation of religiosity and depression relationships (Corrèa, Moreira-Almeida, Menezes, Vallada, & Scazufea, 2011; Koenig et al., 1997; Mosqueiro et al., 2015).

 

One possible explanation is that spiritual/religious social support (e.g., church-based social support such as worshiping together and sharing values and beliefs), as opposed to secular ones may be an essential specific mediator that differs from secular forms of social support (Krause, 2017).

 

Congregation-based support and greater clergy-based support were associated with fewer reported depressives symptoms in African-American cocaine users in the United States (Montegomery, Stewart, Bryant, & Ounpraseuth, 2014). 

 

Religiosity and social support independently led to fewer depressive symptoms in HIV patients  (Kudel, Cotton, Szaflarski, Holmes, & Tsevat, 2011).

 

In summary, the benefits of spirituality/religion in mental health cannot be explained exclusively by social support. However, religious support is usually a source of comfort to patients and should, therefore, be thoroughly considered in clinical practice.

So what do you believe? Are there psychosocial benefits attached to religion?

References

 

George, L. K., Ellison, C. G., & Larson, D. B. (2002). Explaining the relationships between religious involvement and health. Psychological Inquiry, 13(3), 190-200.

 

Corrêa, A. A. M., Moreira-Almeida, A., Meneze, P. R., Vallada, H., & Scazufca, M. (2011). Investigating the role played by social support in the association between religiosity and mental health in low-income older adults: results from the São Paulo Ageing & Health Study (SPAH). Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, 33(2), 157-164.

 

Koenig, H., Parkerson Jr, G. R., & Meador, K. G. (1997). Religion index for psychiatric research.

 

Mosqueiro, B. P., da Rocha, N. S., & de Almeida Fleck, M. P. (2015). Intrinsic religiosity, resilience, quality of life, and suicide risk in depressed inpatients. Journal of affective disorders, 179, 128-133.

 

Krause, A. J., Simon, E. B., Mander, B. A., Greer, S. M., Saletin, J. M., Goldstein-Piekarski, A. N., & Walker, M. P. (2017). The sleep-deprived human brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(7), 404.

 

Montgomery, B. E., Stewart, K. E., Bryant, K. J., & Ounpraseuth, S. T. (2014). Dimensions of religion, depression symptomatology, and substance use among rural African American cocaine users. Journal of ethnicity in substance abuse, 13(1), 72-90.

 

Kudel, I., Cotton, S., Szaflarski, M., Holmes, W. C., & Tsevat, J. (2011). Spirituality and religiosity in patients with HIV: a test and expansion of a model. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 41(1), 92-103.