The Effects of Perceived Religious Support in Childhood on Internalizing Symptoms in Early Adulthood

Research suggests those with high religiosity have better social support and lower stress levels (Gao, 2015), and more frequent attendance of religious services is related to larger social networks and higher variety and perceived quality of social support (Ellison & George, 1994). Furthermore, research has shown that the quality of religious social support protects against symptoms of anxiety and depression (Desrosiers, 2012; Lewis, 2019). However, the relationship between perceived religious support in childhood and internalizing symptoms in adulthood have not been thoroughly investigated in the literature. Therefore, we hypothesize that perceived religious support in childhood correlates with lower levels of anxiety, stress, and depression in adulthood. Data was collected at a public university in rural Appalachia (N = 769, 70.9% female, M age = 20.43, SD = 4.51) using online, self-report survey. Pearson correlations indicated a significant inverse relationship between perceived religious support in childhood and depression (r(612) = -0.30, p = 0.01), anxiety (r(629) = -0.20, p = 0.01), and stress (r(630) = -0.26, p = 0.01). These findings suggest that perceived religious support during childhood may have a small protective effect against depression, anxiety, and stress in early adulthood and that religious support in childhood may be more of a buffer for depression in adulthood compared to stress and anxiety