IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v267y2020ics0277953619303612.html

Religion, social integration, and depression in Europe: Evidence from the European Social Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Schnittker, Jason

Abstract

Western Europe's growing Muslim population has occasioned considerable debate regarding cultural integration, immigration, and social isolation. In this study I explore the relationship between religious identification and depression in European countries, focusing in particular on the situation of Muslims, but comparing across other religious groups, as well as those who are unaffiliated with any religion. The analysis is based on countries sampled in the sixth round of the European Social Survey, conducted in 2012. The results reveal the dueling effects of religious identity: religious involvement involves social integration among like-minded friends, but can also invite discrimination from others. This dueling effect implies significant differences between groups. Among Protestants and Catholics greater religious identification is associated with progressively lower depression, relative to those with no affiliation. Among Muslims lower levels of identification are associated with significantly more depression. Muslims of the highest level of identification are statistically indistinguishable from those with no religious affiliation. These patterns among Muslims are not born of poor social integration, but rather reflect more experiences with discrimination. Overall differences among religious groups are very strong: the difference in depression between Muslims and Protestants, for instance, exceeds the difference between men and women.

Suggested Citation

  • Schnittker, Jason, 2020. "Religion, social integration, and depression in Europe: Evidence from the European Social Survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:267:y:2020:i:c:s0277953619303612
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112376
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619303612
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112376?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Williams, D.R. & Neighbors, H.W. & Jackson, J.S., 2003. "Racial/ethnic discrimination and health: Findings from community studies," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(2), pages 200-208.
    2. Imai, Kosuke & Keele, Luke & Tingley, Dustin & Yamamoto, Teppei, 2011. "Unpacking the Black Box of Causality: Learning about Causal Mechanisms from Experimental and Observational Studies," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 105(4), pages 765-789, November.
    3. Claire L. Adida & David D. Laitin & Marie-Anne Valfort, 2010. "Identifying barriers to Muslim integration in France," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00618060, HAL.
    4. Bhui, K. & Stansfeld, S. & McKenzie, K. & Karlsen, S. & Nazroo, J. & Weich, S., 2005. "Racial/ethnic discrimination and common mental disorders among workers: Findings from the EMPIRIC study of ethnic minority groups in the United Kingdom," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(3), pages 496-501.
    5. Raymond Hicks & Dustin Tingley, 2011. "Causal mediation analysis," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 11(4), pages 605-619, December.
    6. Johnston, David W. & Lordan, Grace, 2012. "Discrimination makes me sick! An examination of the discrimination–health relationship," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 99-111.
    7. Diane Lauderdale, 2006. "Birth outcomes for Arabic-named women in California before and after September 11," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 43(1), pages 185-201, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Songyun Shi & Chenhong Peng & Qian Zhang & Ming Wen & Yu-Chih Chen & Paul S. F. Yip, 2025. "Does Religion Buffer the Negative Effects of Economic and Subjective Poverty on Life Satisfaction? Longitudinal Evidence from Hong Kong," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 20(2), pages 523-542, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Armijos Bravo, Grace & Vall Castelló, Judit, 2021. "Terrorist attacks, Islamophobia and newborns’ health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Ejeta, Tadesse Tolera & Bai, Xiuguang, 2026. "Does the adoption of agricultural green production technologies improve eco-efficiency? Evidence from wheat farmers in Ethiopia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    3. Johnston, David W. & Lordan, Grace, 2012. "Discrimination makes me sick! An examination of the discrimination–health relationship," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 99-111.
    4. Dušan Drbohlav & Dagmar Dzúrová, 2017. "Social Hazards as Manifested Workplace Discrimination and Health (Vietnamese and Ukrainian Female and Male Migrants in Czechia)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, October.
    5. Alexander M. Danzer & Carsten Feuerbaum & Marc Piopiunik & Ludger Woessmann, 2022. "Growing up in ethnic enclaves: language proficiency and educational attainment of immigrant children," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 1297-1344, July.
    6. Hoekx, Laura & Lambrechts, Frank & Vandekerkhof, Pieter & Voordeckers, Wim & Frank, Hermann, 2023. "The influence of familiness on decision-making quality in top management teams: The role of emotional dissonance and perceived team support," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    7. Xitong Li & Jörn Grahl & Oliver Hinz, 2022. "How Do Recommender Systems Lead to Consumer Purchases? A Causal Mediation Analysis of a Field Experiment," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 620-637, June.
    8. David G. Lugo‐Palacios & Jonathan M. Clarke & Søren Rud Kristensen, 2023. "Back to basics: A mediation analysis approach to addressing the fundamental questions of integrated care evaluations," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(9), pages 2080-2097, September.
    9. Christopher Wiley Shay, 2023. "Swords into ploughshares? Why human rights abuses persist after resistance campaigns," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 60(1), pages 141-156, January.
    10. Guanglei Hong & Jonah Deutsch & Heather D. Hill, 2013. "Ratio-of-Mediator-Probability Weighting for Causal Mediation Analysis in the Presence of Treatment-by-Mediator Interaction," Working Papers 2013-009, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    11. Wahl, Fabian, 2016. "Does medieval trade still matter? Historical trade centers, agglomeration and contemporary economic development," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 50-60.
    12. Gee, Gilbert C. & Spencer, Michael & Chen, Juan & Yip, Tiffany & Takeuchi, David T., 2007. "The association between self-reported racial discrimination and 12-month DSM-IV mental disorders among Asian Americans nationwide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(10), pages 1984-1996, May.
    13. Gee, Gilbert & Walsemann, Katrina, 2009. "Does health predict the reporting of racial discrimination or do reports of discrimination predict health? Findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1676-1684, May.
    14. Assefa, Dawit Z. & Liao, Ching T. & Misganaw, Bisrat A., 2022. "Unpacking the negative impact of initial informality on innovation: The mediating roles of investments in R&D and employee training," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    15. Egle Vaznyte & Petra Andries & Sarah Demeulemeester, 2021. "“Don’t leave me this way!” Drivers of parental hostility and employee spin-offs’ performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 265-293, June.
    16. Zhang, Pan & Wang, Shihong & Li, Boying, 2025. "Harnessing government digital attention: Reducing carbon emissions through the pathways of digitalization," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1008-1019.
    17. Teresa Perry, 2023. "Did the 2016 election cause changes in substance use? An intersectional approach," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 1020-1069, November.
    18. Aklin, Michaël, 2021. "Do high electricity bills undermine public support for renewables? Evidence from the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    19. Burhan Can Karahasan & Fırat Bilgel, 2020. "State–Business Relations, Financial Access and Firm Performance: A Causal Mediation Analysis," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(7), pages 1033-1074, October.
    20. Florencia Torche, 2018. "Prenatal Exposure to an Acute Stressor and Children’s Cognitive Outcomes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(5), pages 1611-1639, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:267:y:2020:i:c:s0277953619303612. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.