CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 29Religion, Spirituality, and PsychologyForgiveness and Related BehaviorsMindfulness and Compassion Interventions

Prospective Associations between Religiousness/Spirituality and Depression and Mediating Effects of Forgiveness in a Nationally Representative Sample of United States Adults

Open access
Toussaint, Loren L., Marschall, Justin C., Williams, David R.·2012·Depression Research and Treatment
DOI 10.1155/2012/267820PMC PMC3364534
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The present investigation examines the prospective associations of religiousness/spirituality with depression and the extent to which various dimensions of forgiveness act as mediating mechanisms of these associations. Data are from a nationally representative sample of United States adults who were first interviewed in 1998 and reinterviewed six months later. Measures of religiousness/spirituality, forgiveness, and various sociodemographics were collected. Depression was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview administered by trained interviewers. Results showed that religiousness/spirituality, forgiveness of oneself and others, and feeling forgiven by God were associated, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, with depressive status. After controlling for initial depressive status, only forgiveness of oneself and others remained statistically significant predictors of depression. Path analyses revealed that religiousness/spirituality conveyed protective effects, prospectively, on depression by way of an indirect path through forgiveness of others but not forgiveness of oneself. Hence, forgiveness of others acts as a mechanism of the salutary effect of religiousness/spirituality, but forgiveness of oneself is an independent predictor. Conclusions regarding the continued development of this type of research and for the treatment of clients with depression are offered.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1155/2012/267820

Cites

31 of 31 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Among the 10 highest quality studies on R/S and forgiveness, seven (70%) reported greater forgiveness among more R/S.

    “Among the 10 highest quality studies, seven (70%) reported greater forgiveness among the more R/S [116–119], a finding that recent research has supported [120].”

    From Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical Implications (2012) · cites this paper as [116]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [5]Williams DR Fayard C Hernandez BC Anderson B HardingIV GT Scientific research on the study of religion/spirituality and mental health: lessons, positive affirmations, and disquieting questions A Christian Worldview and Mental Health: A Seventh-Day Adventist Perspective 2011 Berrien Springs, Mich, USA Andrews University Press 185 208

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Toussaint, L. L., Marschall, J. C., & Williams, D. R.
Affiliations
  • Luther College (US)
  • Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Toussaint, Loren L.
ORCID
Venue
Depression Research and Treatment
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2012
Volume
2012
Pages
1-10
ISSN
  • 2090-1321 (ISSN-L)
  • 2090-133X
DOI
10.1155/2012/267820
PMC
PMC3364534
OpenAlex
W1986294368
Cited by
29
References
31
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 1 · 2012: 2
FWCI
2.55
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Depression Research and Treatment (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Fetzer Institute (T32-MH16806)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (T32-MH16806)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Forgiveness and Related Behaviors
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
Keywords
religiosity, spirituality, depression, forgiveness, forgiveness of others, mediation, longitudinal associations

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review