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The Influence of Close Ties on Depression: Does Network Religiosity Matter?
Author(s) -
Upenieks Laura
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal for the scientific study of religion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1468-5906
pISSN - 0021-8294
DOI - 10.1111/jssr.12668
Subject(s) - religiosity , interpersonal ties , salience (neuroscience) , respondent , psychology , social psychology , mental health , strong ties , social network (sociolinguistics) , sociology , social media , psychiatry , political science , law , cognitive psychology
Despite a growing body of the literature on how features of social networks influence well‐being, we know little of how the religiosity of social networks matter. This study addresses three types of religious social network ties and their association with mental health: same (non)‐religious ties, religious discussion ties, and ties offering prayers on an individual's behalf. Using ego‐centric network data from the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study ( N = 2,223), multivariate regression results suggest that a greater number of ties that discuss religion and pray for the respondent are detrimental to the mental health of those of a low religious salience. Taken together, this study demonstrates that religious dimensions of social networks exact an important influence on mental health and highlights the importance of identifying specific features of religion among core network ties.