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Religious Beliefs, Faith Community Involvement andDepression: A Study of Rural, Low-Income MothersM. E. Betsy Garrison PhD and LSU a , Loren D. Marks PhD a , Frances C. Lawrence PhD a &Bonnie Braun PhD ba Louisiana State University Agricultural Centerb University of Maryland-College ParkPublished online: 17 Oct 2008.

To cite this article: M. E. Betsy Garrison PhD and LSU , Loren D. Marks PhD , Frances C. Lawrence PhD & Bonnie Braun PhD(2005) Religious Beliefs, Faith Community Involvement and Depression: A Study of Rural, Low-Income Mothers, Women &Health, 40:3, 51-62, DOI: 10.1300/J013v40n03_04

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Religious Beliefs, Faith CommunityInvolvement and Depression:

A Study of Rural, Low-Income Mothers

M. E. Betsy Garrison, PhDLoren D. Marks, PhD

Frances C. Lawrence, PhDBonnie Braun, PhD

ABSTRACT. The current study investigated the connection betweenreligion and mental health of 131 rural, low-income mothers. Twodimensions of religion, beliefs and faith community involvement, wereincluded and depression was assessed by the CES-D. The sample con-sisted of mothers who participated in Wave 2 of a multi-state research pro-ject. As hypothesized, both religious beliefs and faith communityinvolvement were negatively related to depressive symptoms indicatingthat mothers with stronger religious beliefs and more involvement in reli-

Please note that this electronic prepublication galley may contain typographical errors and may be missingartwork, such as charts, photographs, etc. Pagination in this version will differ from the published version.

M. E. Betsy Garrison, Loren D. Marks, and Frances C. Lawrence are affiliated withthe Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. Bonnie Braun is affiliated with theUniversity of Maryland-College Park.

Address correspondence to: M. E. Betsy Garrison, PhD, LSU, School of HumanEcology, Baton Rouge, LA 70803 (E-mail: hcgarr@lsu.edu).

The authors thank Jennifer Burczyk-Brown for her assistance on this manuscript.The research was supported in part by the School of Human Ecology, the College of Ag-

riculture, Louisiana State University and the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center.Support for this research was also provided by the United States Department of Agri-

culture (NRICGP2000-01759) and participating universities. Data were collected in con-junction with the cooperative multi-state Project NC-223 “Rural Low-Income Families:Monitoring Their Well-Being and Functioning in the Context of Welfare Reform.” Co-operating states were: Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Ne-braska, New Hampshire, and Ohio. Approved for publication by the Director of theLouisiana Agricultural Experiment Station as manuscript number 03-36-1631.

Women & Health, Vol. 40(3) 2004http://www.haworthpress.com/web/WH

2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.Digital Object Identifier: 10.1300/J013v40n03_04 51

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gious activities may experience less depressive symptoms. The resultsof the current study confirm previous work and support a multifacetedview of religion. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Docu-ment Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> 2004 by TheHaworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Faith community involvement, low-income, maternaldepression, religious beliefs

The body of empirical knowledge on religion and mental health hasgrown rapidly over the past five years.1 Despite increased interest in the con-nection between religion and mental health, a recent review indicates thatthere is little empirical research focused on mothers and religion (Dollahite,Marks, & Goodman, 2004). Research on religion in rural settings is also lim-ited. Consequently, there is a paucity of research on rural mothers. Tocontextualize the present study on the relationship between religion and de-pression in rural, low-income mothers, literature from three related bodies isbriefly overviewed: (a) religion and psychological well-being, (b) religionand social support, and (c) rural women and depression.

RELIGION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

The historic tension for mental health professionals between religiousfaith and mental health was anchored in theoretical portrayals of reli-gion as psychopathological (Ellis, 1980; Freud, 1933/l961). At present,however, burgeoning empirical data indicate that the conceptualization ofreligion as psychologically harmful was largely inaccurate (Koenig,McCullough, & Larson, 2001). Although some expressions and forms ofreligious belief and practice may be deleterious, the majority of extant dataindicate positive correlations between several aspects of religious experi-ence and mental, physical, and social health (Dollahite et al., 2004; Koenig,1998; Pargament, 1997). Koenig and colleagues’ landmark volumeHandbook of Religion and Health (2001) critically reviews and analyzesthe research designs and findings of more than 1,200 studies and docu-ments predominantly positive relationships between religiosity and vari-ous measures of physical and mental well-being.

More specifically, empirical research correlates certain religious be-liefs with a number of specific positive mental health outcomes, includ-

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ing greater personal happiness and/or self-esteem (Bahr & Martin,1983; Ellison & George, 1994; Koenig, 1998; Thomas & Cornwall,1990; Willits & Crider, 1988), lower rates of depression (Ellison &George, 1994), and higher reported well-being (Levin & Chatters,1998; Michello, 1988; Thomas & Cornwall, 1990). In connection withthe specific linkage between religious involvement and depression, a re-cent review of 101 studies indicated that 65% (of 93) cross-sectional orprospective studies reported a significant positive relationship betweenreligious involvement and lower rates of depression or depressivesymptoms while only 4% of these studies reported greater depressionamong the more religious (Koenig et al., 2001).2

RELIGION AND SOCIAL SUPPORT

Sociologists, focusing on interpersonal relationships as well as thesocial and behavioral aspects of religion, acknowledge that extrinsic re-ligious activities such as attendance of services assist in dealing withstressors (Hackney & Sanders, 2003; Wilder, 2002). Sociologists and psy-chologists now acknowledge that fewer mental health problems(Pargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1998) and increased psychosocialcompetence (Hathaway & Pargament, 1990; Nooney & Woodrum, 2002)are associated with religiosity for some people. In a recent literature re-view on the religion and family connection, Dollahite and colleagues(2004) note that women are more likely than men to seek and receivesocial support from faith community involvement.

However, some research indicates that divorced and separatedmothers tend to receive less support from religious communities thanwidows, and that religious single and cohabiting adolescent mothersreport more depression than do religious married adolescent moth-ers. Thus, research supports the conclusion that, although religionmay influence women and families, the structure of a woman’s fam-ily can shape the type and degree of influence of religious experienceon her life (for a review, see Dollahite et al., 2004).

RURAL WOMEN AND DEPRESSION

U.S. women are more vulnerable than men to depression, as well asto poverty (American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Lennon, Blome, &English, 2001; Mirowsky, 1996). Further, mothers of young children

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are at increased risk for both poverty and depression (e.g., Lennon et al.,2001; Mazure, Keita, & Blehar, 2002; Reading & Reynolds, 2001).Mental health problems are also associated with increased dependenceon public assistance and poor outcomes for children, including in-creased risk for mental and physical health problems and more aca-demic and behavior problems (Petterson & Albers, 2001).

Rural women are less likely to be diagnosed for depression by a ruralprimary care physician and less likely to receive treatment (Mulder,Kendel, & Shellenberger, 1999). Many rural counties have few or no in-patient mental health facilities and this lack of services increases theodds that people will not get care to prevent problems or reduce their se-verity in a timely manner (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services,2002; Wagenfeld, Goldsmith, Stiles, & Manderscheid, 1998).

The current study investigates the connection between religion andmental health of rural, low-income mothers. The present study buildson a recent investigation that found faith was a positive factor in thelife satisfaction of rural mothers (Braun & Marghi, 2003). Like Braunand Marghi’s work, this study incorporates the conceptual work ofMarler and Hadaway (2002), who divided faith into two dimensions:(a) personal or spiritual beliefs, and (b) faith community involvement.Recent scholarship on religion has emphasized that it is vital that re-search move beyond the single-item measures of religion common topast research (Mahoney, Pargament, Tarakeshwar, & Swank, 2001).Further, the importance of assessing multiple dimensions of religiousexperience (e.g., beliefs and faith community involvement vs. beliefsonly) has been underscored (Dollahite & Marks, 2004; Dollahite et al.,2004). Thus, two dimensions of religion were included in the currentstudy and each was measured by multiple items to provide a multifac-eted view of religion. Two hypotheses guided the study. First, it washypothesized that (a) reported importance of religious beliefs and (b)faith community involvement would be negatively associated with de-pressive symptoms. The second hypothesis was that the degree of faithcommunity involvement would be more strongly associated with de-pressive symptoms than reported importance of religious beliefs.

METHODS

Participants

The sample consisted of rural low-income mothers who participatedin Wave 2 of a multi-state longitudinal project, NC-223 “Rural Low-In-

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come Families: Tracking Their Well-Being in the Context of WelfareReform.” Families were recruited through programs that serve low-in-come families including the Food Stamp Program, Head Start, and theSupplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children(WIC), welfare-to-work programs, and migrant worker programs. Tobe eligible, families had to have annual household incomes at or below200% of the federal poverty line and at least one child 12 years old oryounger. Using a semi-structured interview protocol, interviews wereconducted in the participants’ homes or another private place in the or-ganizations from which participants were recruited. An overview of themulti-state project is found at: http://www.ruralfamilies.umn.edu/.

In Wave 2, only a subsample of the original 316 mothers were askedto complete the religion portion of the interview which was not includedin the previous data collection. These mothers (n = 131) resided in eightstates: Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Ne-braska, New Hampshire, and Ohio, and, in general, represented thesame geographic regions of the U.S. as the larger sample.

In this sample, the mean age of the mothers was 27, and they aver-aged 2 children. Among these mothers, about half were Non-HispanicWhite (51%), 25% were Hispanic/Latina, and 19% were African Amer-ican. While more than half of the mothers were single, divorced, or sep-arated, about one-third of the mothers (34%) were married, with anadditional 15% living with a partner. Most of the mothers (63%) wereemployed, and their household income averaged $20,000 per year.About equal proportions of the sample resided in the midwestern andsouthern regions of the U.S. (45% and 42%, respectively), and theremaining 13% lived in the Northeast.

Variables and Assessments

Based on Krause’s assessment (1998), religious beliefs were as-sessed by three items: “Get strength and support from God,” “Prayerhelps me” and “It is important to seek God’s guidance” using a four-point Likert scale. These items were summed into a single index, withhigher scores indicating that the respondent attributed more importanceto religious faith. Faith community involvement was assessed by twoitems that measured the extent of participation in religious servicesfrom “never” to “nearly every day,” using a six-point scale. These itemswere also summed into a single index, with higher scores indicatingmore religious involvement. Both variables have adequate reliability(Krause, 1998).

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The measure for symptoms of depression was the widely used Centerfor Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (Radloff, 1977).The 20 items in the assessment ranged from feeling “depressed” and“sad” to feeling like “not eating” and having “crying spells.” The CES-Dscale has high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and validity, andthe psychometric properties are consistent across age, sex, and ethnicsubgroups (Radloff & Locke, 1986; Robinson, Shaver, & Wrightsman,1991). The internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) of the CES-D in thecurrent sample was 0.90. As designed, the variable for this assessmentwas summed into a single index by adding the scores from zero (“rarelyor none of the time”) to three (“most of the time”) for each item. Anyonewith a score of 16 or higher is classified as at risk for clinical depression.

Data Analysis

Following frequency and correlational analyses to check for normaldistribution and multicollinearity among variables, multiple regressionanalyses were conducted. Because ethnicity and region of the countryare related to religious beliefs and involvement [e.g., African Ameri-cans are more religious (Taylor, Mattis, & Chatters, 1999) and religiousparticipation is higher in the South (Ellison & Sherkat, 1995)], theywere included as control variables in the current study. Both variableswere included in the regression analyses as dummy-coded variables.Three dummy-coded variables were created for the variable measuringethnicity (African American, Hispanic/Latina and Other), with Whiteas the omitted comparison category. Likewise, two dummy variableswere created for the variable measuring region (Northeast and Mid-west), with South as the omitted comparison category. To test the hy-potheses of the current study, a three-step hierarchical regressionprocedure to investigate depressive symptoms was employed. The con-trol variables (ethnicity and region) were entered on the first block, reli-gious beliefs were entered on the second block, and faith communityinvolvement was entered on the third block.

FINDINGS

Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, and ranges), appro-priate reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha), and first-order correla-tions of all variables are depicted in Table 1. The correlation between thetwo items of faith community involvement was high (r = 0.74, p < 0.001).

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The variables were found to be normally distributed and reliable (inter-nal consistency).

Because the mean value of religious beliefs is greater than the ex-pected mean score of 7.5 [calculated as n�xP(x), where n = number ofitems in scale, x = score on individual item, and P(x) = probability ofscore on item], the mothers in the current study indicate strong religiousbeliefs. The mean value of faith community involvement, however, wasless than the expected mean score of 7, indicating that these mothers areless religiously involved than others. The findings also indicated that42% of participants are at risk for clinical depression because they haddepressive symptom scores of 16 or higher.

The correlations among the independent variables ranged from 0.06to 0.33, indicating that problems associated with multicollinearity wereminimal. The correlations between the independent variables (ethnicity,region, religious beliefs, and faith community involvement) and depend-ent variable ranged from 0.05 to 0.24. Faith community involvement wasfound to be significantly inversely correlated with maternal depressivesymptoms, revealing that mothers who reported higher levels of atten-dance at religious services also reported fewer symptoms of depression.

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TABLE 1. Means, Standard Deviations, Reliability Coefficients, and Intercorre-lations for all Variables (n = 131)

M SD Range � 1 2 3 4

DependentVariable

Depression 14.98 10.81 0-48 0.90 �0.08 �0.05 �0.10 �0.24*

IndependentVariables

1. Ethnicity -- �0.13 �0.06 �0.08

2. Region -- 0.26* 0.11

3. ReligiousBeliefs

9.77 2.24 3-12 0.85 -- 0.33*

4. Faith CommunityInvolvement

5.53 3.07 2-12 0.91 --

*p � 0.05

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The results of the first step of the regression analyses indicate thatethnicity, specifically being African American, related to the depressivesymptoms of these low-income rural mothers (Table 2). The results ofthe second step of the regression analyses indicated that religious be-liefs were associated with depressive symptoms, although the R2 waslow and the F-statistic was not significant. As hypothesized, religiousbeliefs were negatively related to depressive symptoms, indicating that,among this sample of low-income rural mothers, those with strongerreligious beliefs may experience fewer depressive symptoms.

The results of the last step of the regression analyses indicate thatfaith community involvement was significantly negatively related tomaternal depressive symptoms. The F-statistic was statistically signifi-cant and R2 was not as low as the earlier finding and typical for this lineof research. The change in R2 was also significant, indicating that faithcommunity involvement, more than religious beliefs, was associatedwith depressive symptoms. Thus, faith community involvement, a morebehavioral component of religiosity, may be a better correlate of mater-

58 WOMEN & HEALTH

TABLE 2. Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis (n = 131)

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

B se � B se � B se �

Variable

African American �5.67 2.87 �0.21*

Hispanic �2.92 2.78 �0.11

Other Ethnicity 2.74 5.79 0.05

Northeast Region 5.60 3.97 0.14

Midwest Region 0.53 2.68 0.02

Religious Beliefs �0.79 0.47 �0.16*

Faith CommunityInvolvement

�0.69 0.35 �0.19*

Constant 15.76 24.33 24.18

F 1.41 1.66 2.01*

R2 0.06 0.08 0.11

� in R2 0.02 0.03*

*p � 0.05, two-tailed

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nal depression than religious beliefs. Further statistical analyses with in-teraction terms (not reported here) indicated that the interaction betweenreligious beliefs and faith community involvement was not significant,thus lending more support to this finding.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this study was to examine the associations among reli-gious beliefs, faith community involvement, and depression in a sampleof rural low-income mothers. Specifically, this study sought to investi-gate the relative contributions of religious beliefs and faith community in-volvement to maternal depressive symptoms. In general, the results of thecurrent study support the hypotheses that religious beliefs and faith com-munity involvement are related to mental health and the findings of thecurrent study add to the existing literature. Although modest, the negativerelationships between religious beliefs and faith community involvementand maternal depression closely correspond to the findings of the 101study meta-analysis mentioned previously (Koenig et al., 2001).

The moderate but significant inverse relation between faith commu-nity involvement and depressive symptoms deserves special attention.Rural low-income mothers are at high risk for depression, as discussedin the review of literature. Mothers in this group may lack professionalcapability, mobility, and a co-parent, in addition to the primary risk fac-tor of having a low income. Further, many of these mothers may be lim-ited in the professional, marital, recreational, and civic-related socialsupport that mothers of higher SES enjoy. In short, active practice andinvolvement with a faith community may provide a critical social group(and for many rural low-income mothers, perhaps the only social group)upon which they can rely and draw. When a mother has limited accessto resources and social support, social support derived from participa-tion in even one group appears to provide social support (Kohler, An-derson, Oravecz & Braun, 2004). In the case of many of the mothers inthis study, faith community appears to provide such support. Alterna-tively, it could be posited that depression leads to isolation and that de-pressed persons are less likely to actively seek out membership-basedgroups in which to be involved. Less depressed persons may also attendfaith community activities. Since these are not mutually exclusivepossibilities, both processes may be occurring.

As with all research, the findings of this study must be considered inlight of its limitations. It should be noted that even though the independent

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variables were found to be significantly related to depressive symptoms,the amount of variance in depressive symptoms explained by the independ-ent variables was low. This finding may indicate that important correlatesof maternal depression may have been omitted in the current study. Be-cause this study used a one-time measure of depressive symptoms, re-sponses to the measure of depressive symptoms at another point in timemay be different. In addition, the assessment of religion may have limitedthe results. As scholarly interest in religion increases, better assessments,particularly ones with multiple items and adequate validly and reliability,are needed. The inclusion of other aspects of religiosity, beyond religiousbeliefs, and faith community involvement, such as sacred personal and fa-milial practices and rituals are also needed (Dollahite & Marks, 2004;Marks, 2004). Important non-religious variables that may be included inother studies are level of stress, personality characteristics, and physicalhealth status. Future studies also need to employ both female and male par-ticipants so that potential gender effects are more apparent.

Despite these limitations, religious beliefs may shield depression forlow-income rural women, and even more importantly, active participa-tion in a faith community may be a more salient “faith factor” in pre-venting depression. As individual helpers and helping communities(both secular and sacred) better understand personal, familial, and so-cial dimensions of religious experience and their correlation with men-tal health, the well-being of women like those in this study may beenhanced through more integrated and supportive approaches.

NOTES

1. Recent special issues on religion in psychology journals include the Journal of HealthPsychology (vol. 4, no. 3), Journal of Marital and Family Therapy (vol. 26, no. 2), Journal ofFamily Psychology (vol. 15, no. 4), Journal of Family Psychotherapy (vol. 13, nos. 1-4),Michigan Family Review (vol. 8, no. 1), and American Psychologist (vol. 58, no. 1).

2. In this meta-analysis, 13 studies found no association and 16 reported mixed findings.

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