Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 53, Issue 4 S218-S227, Copyright © 1998 by The Gerontological Society of America
Religious activity and depression among community-dwelling elderly persons with cancer: the moderating effect of race
MA Musick, HG Koenig, JC Hays and HJ Cohen
Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. [email protected]
OBJECTIVES: Research has been oriented toward elucidating the links between
religion and mental health. The purpose of this article is to further our
knowledge in this area by examining the effect of religious activity on
depressive symptomatology among community-dwelling elderly persons with
cancer. We also test whether these effects differ between Blacks and
Whites. METHODS: We use two waves of data collected from a
community-dwelling sample of elderly persons living in North Carolina.
Depressive symptomatology is measured using four subscales from the CES- D
20 scale: somatic-retarded activity, depressed affect, positive affect, and
interpersonal relations. Measures of religious activity include service
attendance, religious devotion, and watching or listening to religious
programs. RESULTS: The findings indicate that among Blacks with cancer,
religious activity is related to lower levels of depressive symptomatology;
no such relationship is found for respondent with other illnesses or no
illness. Further, the effects of religious activity are stronger among
Blacks than Whites. DISCUSSION: The analyses lend support to the hypothesis
that religious activity is a strong predictor of depression in elderly
adults with cancer. This finding, however, is not as strong as we had
anticipated.
