Religious Practice and Psychological Distress: The Importance of Gender, Ethnicity and Immigrant Status

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between religious practice and psychological distress in a culturally diverse urban population to explore how religious affiliation, gender, ethnicity, and immigrant status affect this relationship. Data were drawn from a study of health care utilization in Montreal. A stratified community sample of 1485 yielded four religious groups: Protestant (n = 205), Catholic (813), Jewish (201), and Buddhist (150), and a group with no declared religion (116). The sample was composed of five ethnocultural groups: Anglophone Canadian-born, Francophone Canadian-born, Afro-Caribbean, Vietnamese, and Filipino immigrants. Psychological distress was assessed with the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Religious involvement was measured with three items: 1) declared religion; 2) frequency of attendance at religious meetings; and 3) frequency of religious rituals performed at home. Multiple regression models examined the relationship of religious practice to distress, controlling for sociodemographic variables including ethnicity. Overall, attendance at religious services was associated with a lower GHQ score. Attendance at religious services also was inversely related to psychological distress for females, Protestants, Catholics, Filipinos, and Afro-Caribbeans; but not for males, Buddhists or Jews. Religious practice at home was not associated with level of distress for any group. The 'no declared religion' group had the highest mean GHQ score of all the groups. Results confirm the association between attendance at religious services and lower levels of distress, but reveal ethnospecific and gender effects indicating the need to understand the impact of religious practice on mental health in social and cultural context.

Psychological Distress and Its Demographic Associations in an Immigrant Population: Findings from the Israeli National Health Survey

“…This analysis indicated that certain groups were more vulnerable to high psychological distress: women, older people, the divorced/widowed, the secular, those who had less than college education, the unemployed and particularly those in the 'not in workforce' category. In all these groups, the scores for psychological distress were higher for immigrants [59], employment [19,53], and religious observance [72]. The present findings, however, differ from previous studies in three respects.…”

Understanding differences in past year psychiatric disorders for Latinos living in the US

“…The socialization of young Latino children in U.S. schools could be related to family cultural conflict, which itself may have an impact on the social support network. On the other hand, religious attendance, common among low-income Latino groups, might help minorities cope with the hardship of disadvantageous circumstances (Jarvis, Kirmayer, Weinfeld, & Lasry, 2005) by establishing socially-protective ties that buffer stressors.…”

La voie de l’intérieur

“…De manière générale, le lien entre le sens accordé à la détresse et les ressources mobilisées par les immigrants en pré-sence de celle-ci demeure un objet d'étude négligé. Les recherches ayant tenté de saisir le sens associé aux différents itinéraires thérapeutiques utilisés par les migrants au Canada ont mis en évidence plusieurs aspects dépas-sant grandement le seul domaine psychomédical (Horne et al 2004;Jarvis et al 2005;Whitley et al 2006). Compte tenu de ces résultats, les chercheurs souhaitant rendre compte des attitudes des populations immigrantes en termes de santé mentale se doivent de s'intéresser aux « réseaux à travers lesquels les acteurs transforment des valeurs uniques en pratiques » [ma traduction] (Bibeau 1997 : 249).…”