Depression in Mormon Women

Abstract

DEPRESSION IS A COMMON PROBLEM in Western societies; various studies have reported that between 3.2 and 9.3 percent of the population suffers from clinical depression. Women seem to be at least two times more likely to suffer from depression than men. Among the factors related to depression in women are allocation to a homemaker's role at the expense of a career outside the home, little perceived support from husbands, large families, young children in the home, lack of education, and low income. Many Latter-day Saint women in the United States share at least some of these characteristics, and at least two reports have cited Mormon women as being especially susceptible to depression because of perceived pressure to be perfect, expectations of large families at the expense of other interests, and a traditional male-dominated homemaker's role in the face of a changing social system (Burgoyne and Burgoyne 1977; Degn 1979; Johnson 1979; Warenski 1978, 98). To date, most of the evidence has come from anecdotes by therapists who have treated depressed Mormon women. To clarify this issue, we designed a study to estimate the prevalence of depression among married Mormon women in Utah. We also designed the study to help determine if the factors affecting LDS women were similar to factors found in other depressed female populations. We used a random-digit phone dialing procedure in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area to identify both LDS and non-LDS women who were married, Caucasian, Englishspeaking, and whose children were all fourteen or younger.