Is depressed affect a function of one's relationship with God?: Findings from a study of primary care patients

This study examines the association between a self-reported loving relationship with God and the presence of depressed affect. Building on prior clinical and epidemiologic research on religious factors in mental health, it seeks to extend consideration to internal religious resources.

Data are from 205 primary care outpatients who completed a self-administered survey inquiring about their relationship with God, their mental and physical health, and various religious and psychosocial issues. The principal dependent construct is the depressed affect subscale of the General Well-Being Scale. The principal independent construct is a validated eight-item self-report measure of loving and being loved by God based on a theoretical taxonomy developed by Sorokin.

Hierarchical ordinary least squares regression was used to investigate the association between this construct, which Sorokin termed "religious love," and the measure of depressed affect. After controlling for sets of hypothesized mediating factors (multi-item measures of religious involvement, social resources, psychological resources, and physical health status) in five successive models, as well as several key sociodemographic variables, the statistically significant inverse association between these two constructs in the baseline model (beta = -.29, p < .01) remained strong and statistically significant (beta = -.21, p < .05).

These findings raise the possibility that a loving relationship with God may exert a protective effect on psychological distress. One's relationship with God thus may represent an important personal resource for mitigating the emotional consequences of poor health and other deleterious life circumstances, as well as marker for successful religious coping.