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Thembelihle Q. Luthuli, University of Kwazulu-Natal
Causal pathways between religion and depression in the South African population Aim: The relationship between religion and depression has been established in the literature. This study aims to contribute to a greater understanding of the causal pathways between religion and depression in the South African population, which are less understood. The two dominant hypotheses in causal analysis, social causation and social selection, will be tested in this study to determine the direction of the relationship between religion and depression. Social causation will suggest that a lack of religious activity leads to depression, while social selection will suggest that depression leads to a lack of religious activity Methods: The data that will be utilised in this study includes five waves of the nationally-representative National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) from 2008 to 2017. The NIDS has incorporated the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale Short Form (CES-D-10), which measures depressive symptoms. Generalised structural equation models will be fitted to explore the direction of the relationship between depression and religion in the South Africa population. Expected results: The results will indicate whether the social causation or the social selection hypothesis best describes the relationship between religion and depression in the South African population.
Keywords: Health and morbidity, Causal analysis / Causal estimation, Panel studies, Culture, ethnicity, race, religion and language