Abstract
The current dissertation examined differences in rates of depression symptoms in religious compared to nonreligious individuals, the curvilinear relationship of depression symptoms to nonreligious and religious degree of belief, as well as mediating (e.g., anticipated stigma) and moderating factors (e.g., dogmatism, individualism, and collectivism) of the relationship between religiosity/nonreligiosity and depressive symptoms. Data from the study was collected from a sample of 229 (138 religious and 91 nonreligious) individuals recruited through Mturk. Results found no statistically significant differences in depression rates between religious and nonreligious participants. However, there was a partial reverse U-shaped relationship between degree of nonreligious/religious belief and depression symptoms, with the highest level of depressive symptoms at medium to low levels of religiosity. Anticipated stigma did not mediate the relationship between religion/nonreligion and depressive symptoms. Collectivism and dogmatism identity were found to be moderators between religious/nonreligious belief and depressive symptoms such that at low collectivism and high dogmatism, the differences in depressive symptoms between the nonreligious and religious were largest. Study findings ran contrary to prior results, indicating nonreligious populations may possess lower levels of depressive symptoms compared to religious populations. These results underscore the importance of analyzing nonreligious populations utilizing validated measures and statistical analyses as well as examining factors that may influence the relationship between religiosity/secularity and depression symptoms.