INTRINSIC RELIGIOUSNESS AND DEPRESSION 1
Intrinsic Religiosity and Depression
According to the World Health Organization, depression is one of the most prevalent
psychological complications in the world impacting more than 264 million people from all age
groups (WHO, 2020). It impacts roughly 8% of individuals in the United States (~17 million
adults). Depression prevalence is higher in adult females (8.7%) relative to adult males (5.3%)
and adults between 18 and 25 years. 20% of Americans will experience depression during their
lifetime and 6% of the country’s population will last for at most one year. A depression diagnosis
increases both mortality rates and psychological suffering (National Institute of Mental Health,
2019).
The possibility of experiencing distressing depression symptoms or developing a major
depressive disorder for diabetic individuals is higher than the general public. Diabetic people are
2 to 3 times more likely to be depressed than diabetes-free individuals (CDC, 2018). Tran et al.
(2021) found that 23.2% of diabetic patients are depressed and the rates for mild, moderate, and
severe depression are 21.8%, 0.9%, and 0.5%. The current research aims at determining the
associations between intrinsic religiosity (an individual’s motivation by and commitment to
religious faith) and depressive symptoms in this highly vulnerable population.
Literature Review
Koenig and Büssing (2010) saw a need for a concise religiosity metric that can be
incorporated into empirical surveys to investigate the association between religiousness and
medical outcomes and thus came up with the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL).
DUREL quantifies organizational religiousness (OR), non-organizational religiousness (NOR),
, INTRINSIC RELIGIOUSNESS AND DEPRESSION 2
and subjective (or intrinsic religiousness). The instrument quantifies the three subscales using
separate subscales. The authors use three measures to quantify the IR subscale and it is
conceptualized as the extent to which individuals have incorporated religion into their lives. The
higher the IR score, the higher the degree to which participants have integrated religion into their
lives. Overall, DUREL has high test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and convergent
validity with religiousness metrics and it has been utilized in over 100 published studies.
Multiple authors have studied subjective religiosity and depression. Houltberg et al.,
(2010) studied adolescents’ IR perceptions, family connectedness, and gender relative to
depression and whether gender and IR moderated the relationship between elements of family
connectedness and adolescent depression. They used hierarchical multiple regression to
separately test models of three types of family connections (fathers’ support, mothers’ support,
and overall family connectedness), IR, and depression. In all the models, there was a negative
association between family connectedness and depression and no significant relationship
between IR and depression. The findings suggest that affinity in general family dyads and IR, are
all vital to adolescent psychological resilience by safeguarding against depression. This article is
relevant to this study because it investigated the impact of IR on depressive adolescents and its
findings yield implications for intervention and prevention efforts to address adolescent
depression. Therefore, this research conflicts with the findings of Houltberg et al. (2010).
The objective of Payman and Ryburn (2010) was to determine whether intrinsic
religiosity impacts the prognosis of geriatric inpatients with major depression. They measured
depression using the Geriatric Depression Rating Scale and IR using DUREL. They found that
an individual’s motivation by and commitment to religious faith significantly predicts lower
depression scores with time among geriatric patients with depression. In other words, the higher
Intrinsic Religiosity and Depression
According to the World Health Organization, depression is one of the most prevalent
psychological complications in the world impacting more than 264 million people from all age
groups (WHO, 2020). It impacts roughly 8% of individuals in the United States (~17 million
adults). Depression prevalence is higher in adult females (8.7%) relative to adult males (5.3%)
and adults between 18 and 25 years. 20% of Americans will experience depression during their
lifetime and 6% of the country’s population will last for at most one year. A depression diagnosis
increases both mortality rates and psychological suffering (National Institute of Mental Health,
2019).
The possibility of experiencing distressing depression symptoms or developing a major
depressive disorder for diabetic individuals is higher than the general public. Diabetic people are
2 to 3 times more likely to be depressed than diabetes-free individuals (CDC, 2018). Tran et al.
(2021) found that 23.2% of diabetic patients are depressed and the rates for mild, moderate, and
severe depression are 21.8%, 0.9%, and 0.5%. The current research aims at determining the
associations between intrinsic religiosity (an individual’s motivation by and commitment to
religious faith) and depressive symptoms in this highly vulnerable population.
Literature Review
Koenig and Büssing (2010) saw a need for a concise religiosity metric that can be
incorporated into empirical surveys to investigate the association between religiousness and
medical outcomes and thus came up with the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL).
DUREL quantifies organizational religiousness (OR), non-organizational religiousness (NOR),
, INTRINSIC RELIGIOUSNESS AND DEPRESSION 2
and subjective (or intrinsic religiousness). The instrument quantifies the three subscales using
separate subscales. The authors use three measures to quantify the IR subscale and it is
conceptualized as the extent to which individuals have incorporated religion into their lives. The
higher the IR score, the higher the degree to which participants have integrated religion into their
lives. Overall, DUREL has high test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and convergent
validity with religiousness metrics and it has been utilized in over 100 published studies.
Multiple authors have studied subjective religiosity and depression. Houltberg et al.,
(2010) studied adolescents’ IR perceptions, family connectedness, and gender relative to
depression and whether gender and IR moderated the relationship between elements of family
connectedness and adolescent depression. They used hierarchical multiple regression to
separately test models of three types of family connections (fathers’ support, mothers’ support,
and overall family connectedness), IR, and depression. In all the models, there was a negative
association between family connectedness and depression and no significant relationship
between IR and depression. The findings suggest that affinity in general family dyads and IR, are
all vital to adolescent psychological resilience by safeguarding against depression. This article is
relevant to this study because it investigated the impact of IR on depressive adolescents and its
findings yield implications for intervention and prevention efforts to address adolescent
depression. Therefore, this research conflicts with the findings of Houltberg et al. (2010).
The objective of Payman and Ryburn (2010) was to determine whether intrinsic
religiosity impacts the prognosis of geriatric inpatients with major depression. They measured
depression using the Geriatric Depression Rating Scale and IR using DUREL. They found that
an individual’s motivation by and commitment to religious faith significantly predicts lower
depression scores with time among geriatric patients with depression. In other words, the higher
