Religious practices, beliefs, and mental health: variations across ethnicity

Objectives. We examined whether Black Americans and Hispanic Americans experienced greater mental health benefits from religious involvement than White Americans, and whether these benefits would be mediated through three psychosocial factors – social support, meaning, and forgiveness. Methods. Utilizing data from a probability sample of Chicago-based adults (n=3103), ethnicity-stratified multivariate regression models estimated the association of religiosity with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and major depressive disorder (MDD). Models controlled for potential confounders and psychosocial mediators. Results. Contrary to our hypotheses, religiously involved Black Americans and Hispanic Americans did not experience greater mental health benefits than their White counterparts. For White Americans alone, service attendance was inversely related to depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and MDD. Religious saliency was consistently associated with worse mental health for Hispanic Americans only. Howev...