Importance of religion in girls also linked to lower risk Children at risk for depression were less likely to think about or attempt suicide if their parents were religious, an observational study mostly including Christians found. Among 214 children considered to have a higher risk for major depressive disorder based on familial history, parental religiosity was associated with a lower likelihood of suicidal behavior (odds ratio 0.61, 95% CI 0.41-0.91, P=0.02), reported Priya J. Wickramaratne, PhD, of Columbia University Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City, and colleagues in JAMA Psychiatry. And compared with the children of parents who said religion was "not at all important," the researchers observed an 80% decrease in the risk of suicidal behavior among kids whose parents said religion was "highly important." "It is remarkable that not only did a parent's belief in religious importance impact a child's thoughts and behaviors related to suicide, it did so regardless of the child's own belief (or lack of belief) in the importance of religion and regardless of other potent parental risk factors," said Wickramaratne and co-author Connie Svob, PhD, also of Columbia University Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute, in an email to MedPage Today. Despite religious importance among parents being associated with a lower risk of suicidal behavior among their children, church attendance did not appear to play a role. These associations were independent of parental factors such as divorce, depression, or suicidal behavior. When looking at marital status, the researchers found that the children of married or remarried parents were less likely to have suicidal behavior compared with those of divorced or single parents (OR 0.42, P=0.041), but parental religious importance still seemed to play a "protective" role (OR 0.66, P=0.051). Other protective factors are strong connections to friends and family, and community support, Wickramaratne and Svob said. Religious importance in girls was also associated with a lower risk of suicide ideation or attempts (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.33-0.70, P<0.001), as was religious attendance (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.49-0.84, P=0.001); these associations were not seen in boys. "As religiosity is often overlooked in clinical practice, in our paper we suggest that clinicians consider conducting a brief spiritual history with parents of children being brought in for psychiatric consultations, as well as assessing the children's own religious beliefs and practices," Wickramaratne and Svob suggested. The study looked at three generations from 112 nuclear families from the greater New Haven, Connecticut, area. The data spanned a 30-year period, with Christianity being the most common religion. "Our sample was primarily Catholic and did not allow us to make comparisons between religious groups," Wickramaratne and Svob said. "Nonetheless, further research on this topic would be warranted." In all there were 39 cases of suicidal ideation and/or attempts (n=4) among the 214 children from the youngest generation (ages 6 to 18) that made up the focus of the study, 52.3% were girls. The study participants were all white. The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia was used to assess psychiatric diagnoses in both children (child version) and their parents. Source
