Examining potential causal relationships between religiosity and prosocial values, and prosocial values and mental health, in young adulthood in a UK cohort study

The present study examines prospective relationships between (i) religiosity (beliefs and behaviors) and prosocial values (forgiveness, gratitude, agreeableness) and behavior outcomes (self-reported altruism), and (ii) prosociality and mental health outcomes. The study is based on data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (RQ1 n = 4044, RQ2 n = 3158). We used self-reported measures of religiosity at age 27, and altruism, forgiveness, gratitude, and agreeableness at age 29–30. Depression, anxiety, wellbeing, and flourishing were self-reported at age 31 years. Logistic and linear regression models were adjusted for a range of confounders. Multiple imputation was used to address selection bias and sensitivity analyses were used to examine the robustness of our findings to unmeasured confounding. We found consistent evidence in the adjusted models for relationships between the religiosity measures and subsequent altruism and forgiveness scores (β = .08 to .21 and β = .10 to .28, respectively), although not for gratitude or agreeableness. We also found consistent evidence for associations between gratitude and subsequent mental health outcomes and scores (β = .10 to .35), although not for other prosocial values and behaviors. Despite these robust relationships, overall effect sizes were quite small, suggesting any real-world effect of religiosity on prosociality—and prosociality on mental health—in this population is likely to be minimal.