Association between religiosity and depressive symptoms

Abstract

Background: Several studies report a significant association between religiosity and depressive symptoms among adolescents; but, other researches do not. Up to date, this relation has not investigated in adolescent students who live in a violent and low-income country. Objective: To establish the correlation between religiosity and depressive symptoms among students in Cartagena, Colombia. Method: A cross-sectional study was done with participation of adolescents aged between 13 and 17 years old. Students completed two scales: the five-item form of the Francis scale of attitude toward Christianity (Francis-5), which asked about God, Jesus and prayer (higher scores suggest higher religiosity); and the WHO Well-Being Index (WHO-5) inquired depressive symptoms last two weeks (lower scores suggest higher depressive symptoms). It was accepted as a significant Pearson correlation (rho, r) a coefficient value higher than 0.20. A total of 1,730 students answered the questionnaires. The mean age was 14.7 (SD = 1.2). According to gender, 912 (52.7%) students were girls; and 818 (47.3%), boys. Francis-5 showed high internal consistency, coefficient alpha of 0.909; and coefficient omega of 0.910. WHO-5 presented coefficient alpha of 0.757; and omega of 0.759. The Francis-5 scores were between zero and twenty (Mean = 18.2, SD = 3.0, median = 20, mode = 20); and WHO-5 scores, between zero and fifteen (Mean = 10.2, SD = 3.1, median = 10, mode = 10). Religiosity had not significant correlation with depressive symptoms (r = 0.080). Conclusions: Religiosity is not associated with depressive symptoms among adolescent students in Cartagena, Colombia. (DUAZARY 2013 No. 1, 15 - 19)