Open AccessDifferential Association of Spirituality and Religiosity With Rumination
Author(s) -
David C. Saunders,
Connie Svob,
Lifang Pan,
Eyal Abraham,
Jonathan Posner,
Myrna M. Weissman,
Priya Wickramaratne
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the journal of nervous and mental disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.749
H-Index - 123
eISSN - 1539-736X
pISSN - 0022-3018
DOI - 10.1097/nmd.0000000000001306
Subject(s) - rumination , religiosity , psychology , depression (economics) , association (psychology) , spirituality , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , social psychology , medicine , cognition , psychotherapist , alternative medicine , pathology , economics , macroeconomics
Recent studies have shown that religiosity (R) is associated with lower rates of depression, whereas spirituality (S) is associated with higher rates. Rumination has also been associated with higher rates of depression. Some have hypothesized that rumination mediates the differential association of religiosity and spirituality with depression. We empirically test this hypothesis in a longitudinal, multigenerational sample through associations between rumination and depression, R/S and depression, and R/S and rumination. Cross-sectionally, total rumination scores were predicted by spirituality (standardized β = 0.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.00-0.26), with subscale (reflection, depression, and brooding) standardized betas ranging from 0.11 to 0.15 (95% CI, -0.03 to -0.29). Cross-sectionally, rumination was not predicted by religiosity. Longitudinally, and consistent with previous findings, religiosity, but not spirituality, predicted reduced depressive symptoms (standardized β = -0.3; 95% CI, -0.58 to -0.01). The association between spirituality and rumination was driven by millennials. Psychotherapies that target rumination for depression might therefore be especially effective in the millennial demographic.