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 And that is true even if the kids themselves didn't think religion
was important, according to the results published in JAMA
Psychiatry.
The new findings came out of a 30-year, three-generation family
study conducted by the New York State Psychiatric Institute and
Columbia University. At the beginning of that study, researchers
rounded up two groups of volunteers: one composed of people who had
suffered major depression and the other included people who had not
experienced depression. The new study focused on the adult children
(generation two) and grandchildren (generation three) aged 6 to 18
years of those initial volunteers.
The feeling that religion or spirituality is important suggests "an
inner strength," said senior study author Myrna Weissman, a
professor of epidemiology and psychiatry at the Columbia University
College of Physicians and Surgeons and a member of the scientific
board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. "It isn't
about how much time you spend at church, or which particular
religion you are, it's having an inner belief that gives you some
kind of strength that manifests in your behavior. And it is
independent of your children's opinion of religion."
It was a finding that Weissman and her colleagues didn't expect. "We
were rather surprised," she said. "And that's why it took a long
time for us to publish."
For the new study, Weissman and her colleagues interviewed 214
generation-three kids along with 112 of their parents. Parents and
children were asked three questions about spirituality: How
important to you is religion or spirituality? How often, if at all,
do you attend church, synagogue, or other religious or spiritual
services? What denomination are you?
More parents than children reported that religion/spirituality was
of high importance to them, 45 percent versus 25 percent. More
children than parents reported that it was of no importance, 15
percent versus 4 percent.
When the researchers analyzed their data, they found that for girls,
but not boys, feeling that religion or spirituality is important was
tied to 52 percent lower odds of suicidal behavior. Religious
attendance was also linked for girls but not boys with 36 percent
lower odds of suicidal behavior compared to those who did not
attend.
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For both girls and boys, however, higher importance of
religion/spirituality in parents was associated with a 39 percent
lower risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts. The same was not true
when it came to parents' attendance at spiritual services.
The researchers are working on another study now to try to
understand why parents' beliefs are so protective. "We're doing . .
. a survey of 300 people, asking all kinds of questions about
religion and coping," she said. "We suspect it's a commitment to a
certain set of values. The details of those values don't matter. But
they must be uplifting."
The current results were not a surprise to Dr. John Walkup, a
professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University's Feinberg School
of Medicine and chair of child and adolescent psychiatry at the
Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
In general, Walkup said, "if families have an organizing principle
about who they are and how they live and they have raised their kids
in that kind of belief scaffold, there is some kind of structure
that may help prevent suicide because it offers a sense of purpose
within the family."
There's a theory about suicide that suggests three components that
lead to a person killing themselves, said Dr. Emanuel Maidenberg, a
clinical professor of psychiatry at the David Geffen School of
Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and director
of the UCLA Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Clinic.
"First, they perceive themselves as burdensome to others," said
Maidenberg, who is not affiliated with the new research. "They also
feel no sense of belongingness and the third component is that they
have learned to not be afraid of harming themselves."
It's possible that parents' attitude towards religion is protective
because "it could be delivering a sense of community," Maidenberg
said.
That concept rings true to Walkup, who said, "religion embeds you in
a community of like-minded people."
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2noOCji JAMA Psychiatry, online August 8,
2018.
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