Korean American Adolescents’ Depression and Religiousness/Spirituality: Are There Gender Differences?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine depression and religiousness/spirituality (R/S) in Korean American adolescents with an interest in exploring gender differences. The sample consisted of 182 adolescents attending ethnic Catholic churches in the NY and NJ metropolitan area. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, and R/S was measured by the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality. Results suggest no gender difference in depression, but a high rate of depression in both genders. Additionally, girls showed higher levels of Forgiveness and boys showed higher levels of Negative Religious Coping. Further, we found four R/S variables are associated with depression in each gender: Daily Spiritual Experiences, Forgiveness, Positive Religious Coping, and Negative Religious Coping for girls; and Forgiveness, Negative Religious Coping, Congregational Support, and Overall Self-Ranking for boys. Lastly, the four R/S variables together explained 20 % and 23 % of the variance in depression for boys and girls, respectively, with Forgiveness and Negative Religious Coping remaining significant for girls, and Negative Religious Coping staying significant for boys. The current findings are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research, and clinical implications.