1. Religiousness and Depression: Evidence for a Main Effect and the Moderating Influence of Stressful Life EventsT. Smith, M. McCullough, and J. Poll Presented by Lynn Carlson Radford University

2. Purpose • To analyze the association between religiousness and depression and what factors influence the relationship.

3. Goals of Meta-Analysis • Estimate the average magnitude of association between measures of religiousness and depressive symptoms. • Assess whether association is due to a main effect model, stress-buffering model, or both. • Identify characteristics of study samples and methods that might explain variation in religious-depression association.

4. Issues to consider • Moderating and Mediating Variables • Reciprocal relationships • Genetic influences • Developmental influences • Depressive influences on religion • Religious influences in depression

5. Review of the Literature • 147 independent studies • Use four techniques to obtain studies -used electronic databases -used multiple search terms -manually examined reference sections of retrieved articles - sent letters asking for unpublished research to any author of three or more articles on topic

6. Inclusion Criteria • Written in English • Published before February 2000 • Estimated bivariate association for individual • Used search term “religiousness", "spirituality”, or “depression” • Used only global mental health measures

7. Data Coding • Coders received extensive training • Method sections coded separately than results • Two rates coded each article • Two rater teams coded each article • Retrieved objectively verifiable characteristics • Only made inferences on three variables • If dimension of depression or religiousness not explicitly stated, then inferred to code

8. Potential Moderators • Gender • Ethnicity • Age • Life stress • Other Psychiatric diagnosis’s • Measure of Religiousness

9. Characteristics of Studies • 147 total independent studies • 98,975 total participants • Gender reported in 137 studies ( 93%) • Ethnicity reported in 95 studies (65%) • Religious affiliation reported in 45 studies (31%) • Life Stress levels reported in 90 studies (61%)

10. Results N= Number of participants, K= Number of studies, SE=standard error, R+=weighted mean correlation, 95% CI= confidence interval at 95%

11. Limitations of Study • All experiments written in English • Used cross-sectional designs • Mostly North American participants • Mostly Christian participants • Response bias

12. Conclusion • There is evidence that religiousness is a robust correlate of depressive symptoms, even thought it is a small one • Can attribute association to both the main effect model and the stress buffering model • No evidence that age, gender, or ethnicity moderated the association