Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2023
Summary:
People with depression often struggle with Christmas. The festive period is often associated with parties, social engagement, putting up Christmas trees among other behaviours. Here, in a large UK population level dataset, we examine whether higher depressive symptomatology was associated with frequency of sending Christmas cards, and if this varied by religious affiliation. Retrospective observational study. Participants were 2,416 individuals within the UK who completed data from 2013 to 2015 within Wave 5 of the longitudinal survey ‘Understanding Society’. Data on depressive symptoms 12-General Health Questionnaire, frequency of sending Christmas cards, and religious affiliation were extracted. A higher percentage (54.5%) of those without depressive symptoms reported ‘Always’ sending Christmas cards, compared to 46.0% of those with depressive symptoms χ2 (2) = 8.71, p < .001. After adjusting for religious affiliation, this remained significant only for Christians after holding, gender, relationship status and ethnicity constant. Christians with depression (20%) were more likely to ‘Never’ send Christmas cards, while those not depressed were 53% more likely to ‘Always’ send them, p < .01. In those identifying as Christians not sending a Christmas card was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. This might help provide a way to identify loved ones, friends or colleagues who may need help and support at Christmas.
Published in
Cogent Psychology
Volume
Volume: 10
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2022.2151727
ISSN
23311908
Subjects
Notes
Open Access
© 2022 The Author(s).
This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
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