Although previous research suggests that increased religiosity is associated with better mental health and many authors have conjectured that religion-based social support may help explain this connection, scant research has directly examined whether religion-based support mediates religiosity and mental health. The present study examined whether various dimensions of religion-based support (social interaction, instrumental, and emotional) mediated the relationship between religiosity and mental health in college students in the Midwest United States. As expected, of the support dimensions, perceived emotional support was the strongest predictor of decreased hopelessness, depression, and suicide behaviors; and the relationships among intrinsic religiosity and the mental health variables were fully mediated by emotional support. These findings provide strong support to the notion that the relationship between religiosity and mental health can be reduced to mediators such as social support. Research and theoretical implications are discussed.
Keywords: depression; hopelessness; intrinsic religiosity; religious social support; suicide.