Marital Status and Depressive Symptoms in African Americans: The Moderating Role of Social and Religious Resources

Abstract

We examined the gendered role of social and religious resources in the association between marital status and depressive symptoms among a national probability sample of predominantly midlife and older African American adults ( N = 800). Greater levels of depressive symptoms were found for unmarried compared to married. A significant three-way interaction between marital status, gender, and resource variable was found only for religious social support. When religious social support was high, married men reported fewer depressive symptoms compared to nonmarried men ( p = .02). In contrast, when religious social support was high, nonmarried women reported fewer depressive symptoms than married women, but these differences only approached statistical significance ( p = .06). The role of religious resources on marital status and depression differed by sex in our sample of African American adults. Understanding these influences may help to address mental health needs of married and unmarried African Americans and suggest a potentially influential role for religious resources.