Is religion beneficial for mental health? A 9-year longitudinal study.

Background/objective: This study aimed to investigate the within-person and between-person effects of religious variables on mental health and vice versa.

Method: Using a large sample of adults residing in Germany from the GESIS Panel study ( = 8146), the random intercept cross-lagged panel model was used. Data on six dimensions of religion (i.e., membership in a religious community; attendance at a place of worship; frequency of prayers; importance of religion in life; and participation in a religious organization) and three indicators of mental health (i.e., depression symptoms, happiness, and life satisfaction) were collected.

Results: The findings revealed that there is almost no evidence of lagged effects of religion on mental health and limited evidence regarding the role of mental health in influencing the dimensions of religion. Moreover, at the between-person level, there was some evidence of significant covariance between the trait-like components, indicating stable, trait-like differences between persons on religion and mental health.

Conclusions: The beneficial effect of religion on mental health may have been exaggerated in previous research.