Adult religiousness and history of childhood depression: Eleven-year follow-up study

This study investigates the association between childhood depression and the protective qualities of adult religiousness. Subjects were 146 (65 female and 81 male) adults with a history of childhood depression and 123 (61 female and 62 male) adults without a history of childhood depression interviewed as part of a long-term follow-up study (mean years of follow-up, 11.2; SD = 1.4). Depression in childhood and adulthood was assessed by blind and independent clinical interviews by using the Schedule for Affective Disorders for School Aged Children and the Schedule for Affective Disorders Life-time Version, respectively. Religiousness was assessed by report on the personal importance of religion, frequency of attendance of religious services, religious denomination, and child-adult concordance of report. Findings showed adult personal importance of religion to be associated with a decreased risk for depression in women without a history of childhood depression but an increased risk for depression in women with a history of childhood depression. Adult Catholicism as compared with Protestantism was associated with a decreased risk for depression in male childhood depressives, but this association was not found in men without childhood depression. The findings potentially suggest a reciprocal-influence process between childhood pathology and the development of religiousness.