Depressive symptoms and religious orientation: examining the relationship between religiosity and depression within the context of other correlates of depression

The role of cognitive, personality and social variables to explain the relationship between religious orientation and aspects of psychological well-being is often speculated at a theoretical level, but tends not to be explored empirically. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between religious orientation and depressive symptoms among cognitive, personality and social correlates of depression. A total of 360 (172 males, 188 females) English University students completed measures of depressive symptoms, religious orientation, anxiety, neuroticism, coping style, attribution style and self-esteem. Among men and women, depressive symptoms are significantly associated with higher scores on the measures of extrinsic-social and extrinsic personal religious orientation, neuroticism, attribution style, wish and avoidance coping; and lower scores on the measures of intrinsic religious orientation, optimism, self-esteem and problem-focussed and support seeking coping. A multiple regression shows that, among men, all three religious orientations, and among women, two of the three religious orientations (intrinsic, extrinsic-social), represent separate dimensions that are important in accounting for unique variance in depression within the context of a number of cognitive, social and personality explanations of depression.