Publication type
Journal Article
Author
Publication date
March 15, 2025
Summary:
The study aimed to investigate the within-person relationship between religious-service attendance and mental health using data from the British Household Panel Survey (N = 29,298), a longitudinal survey of adult British households between 1991 and 2009. The outcome variables were mental health (as measured with the General Health Questionnaire) and life satisfaction. Using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models over 10 waves of data spanning over 18 years, the associations between religious-service attendance and mental health at the within-person level were mostly nonsignificant. The few significant findings indicated that an increase in religious-service attendance is associated subsequently with either higher or lower levels of mental health, suggesting both detrimental and beneficial effects. A series of robustness analyses (including the use of marginal structural models) mainly supported these findings. The results suggest that there is a need to question the assumption that religious-service attendance provides mental health benefits.
Published in
Psychological Science
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 36 , p.157 -167
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251325449
ISSN
9567976
Subjects
#588580