Church attendance buffers against longer-term mental distress

Abstract

ABSTRACT It has been argued that church attendance benefits mental health by buffering against stress. However, underlying mechanisms are debated and longitudinal evidence is scarce. We use eight years of longitudinal population-representative data from New Zealand to test whether consistent church attendance translates into sustained reductions in distress. We also investigate whether church attendance disrupts dynamic bi-directional relationships between the personality trait of Neuroticism and distress: relationships such as at least temporary increases in Neuroticism following escalations in distress. We compare mental distress trajectories and dynamic effects across three groups of religious people (3,535 non-attenders at church, 1,656 sporadic attenders, and 2,393 consistent attenders), controlling for the effects of gender, age, relative deprivation, and perceived physical health. We observe a more adaptive (downward) mental distress trajectory among consistent attenders as compared to non-attenders, although consistent attenders were also found to have higher baseline levels of mental distress. Among sporadic attenders, we observe elevated baseline distress levels without a decrease in mental distress over time, suggesting that the differences in the trajectories of consistent attenders and non-attenders cannot be explained solely by regression to the mean. Church attendance consistency did not modulate dynamic effects. The findings point to a role for church attendance in buffering stress specifically among people in difficult (distressing) circumstances.