Religious Involvement, Social/Political Strain, and Depression in Contemporary China: How Does Religion Affect Subjective Well-Being Differently in a Regulated Society?

Abstract

An abundance of research suggests that religion positively affects subjective well-being. Most of this research focuses on Western nations where religious activity is conducted in a relatively free manner. Some scholars speculate that religious involvement decreases subjective well-being in religiously regulated societies, where religious adherents face state and societal discrimination. Our study examines the effects of religious involvement on depression in China, a religiously regulated nation, using the 2014 wave of the China Family Panel Study. This paper uses structural equation modeling to show that religious involvement is not initially significantly associated with depression. However, when the indirect paths of religious involvement on depression—through social discrimination and political strain—are controlled for, a negative association between religious involvement and depression is found. Thus, we argue that religious involvement does offer a protective effect from depression, but this is suppressed by social and political strain imposed on religious minorities in a religiously regulated society.

Keywords:

• Religion
• politics
• discrimination
• depression
• China

Disclosure statement

The authors declare there is no conflict of interest in this research.

Ethical approval

This manuscript does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Notes

1 In this paper, the definition of religion is taken from the review article by Harold Koenig (2012:2–3): “religion is defined as believes, practices and rituals related with the transcendent, where the transcendent is God, Allah, Hashem, or a Higher Power in the Western religious traditions, or to Brahman, manifestations of Brahman, Buddha, Dao, or ultimate truth/reality in Eastern traditions.” Religion and spirituality share the same definition and are used interchangeably in the article.

2 According to the China General Social Survey 2010 Wave, there are only about 14.6% people identifying themselves as religious. China Family Panel Study 2014 Wave reported a similar proportion of religious population—18.3%.

3 While the majority of China’s population claim no religious affiliation, folk and diffused religious practices are common (Dean 2003; Palmer and Wickeri 2011; Wang and Uecker 2017; Yang 1961; Yang and Hu 2012). These practices have been described amorphous and deeply embedded in secular social institutions to the extent of having “no significant independent existence” (Yang 1961:295; Yang and Hu 2012; Zhang et al. 2011). Diffused folk religion is often practiced privately with communal practice being rare in Mainland China. Many who are involved in diffused folk religion still identify as not religious (Palmer and Wickeri 2011; Wang and Uecker 2017 Yang and Hu 2012). Religious nones may engages in private religious activities, however, they still form a coherent category with social and political advantages and are clearly differentiated from those with an explicit religious affiliation (Hu, Yang, and Luo 2017).

4 There is evidence of increasing religious tolerance and affiliation in China. Research has found evidence that a warmer climate for religious groups is developing in Shanghai (Feng 2013), college campuses are becoming increasingly religiously tolerant (Duran and Huang 2014; Stark and Wang 2014; Yang 2004), and Protestant recruitment of economic and intellectual elites may contribute to a more positive social standing for Chinese Christians (Cao 2010; Peng 2012 and Zhao and Yang 2011 in Hu 2013). Despite survey research indicating that mainstream Chinese society assesses Christians as not authentically Chinese (Lu and Gao 2018), ethnographic research provides evidence that Protestants feel no such disconnect from their national identity (Entwistle 2016). Sun (2017) argues that the rapid growth of Protestantism in China could have only been possible with a lack of popular resistance. The Catholic Church in China has experienced revitalization as a result of positive integration with mainstream Chinese society (Liu and Leung 2002). The Chinese Muslim cultural toolkit provides avenues for social solidarity both with other Muslims and for affinity toward Muslims’ Chinese identity (Lai 2020). While these represent positives developments for religious groups in China, religious adherents still currently experience political disadvantage in mainstream society (Zhang et al. 2011).

5 Extensive information about the survey can be found at www.isss.edu.cn/cfps/.

6 In Chinese, “Shaoxiangbaifo” is a general expression of religious practice in traditional religions. It is not limited to literally burning incense or praying to Buddha. This also includes various forms of interaction in temples and with deities. Similarly, “Zuolibai” include both prayer in private areas and church/mosque attendance. These two questions ask about the religious involvement of people affiliated with traditional religions, Islam, and Christianity. Thus, both questions measure religious involvement in public and in private.

7 Both the primary and the updated CFA model meets the identification requirement because a single factor has at least three indicators.

8 The formula for reliability is as followed: $\rho =\frac{(\sum \lambda i){ }^2}{(\sum \lambda i){ }^2+(\sum \lambda ii){ }^2+(\sum \lambda ij){ }^2}.$ $\lambda i,$ $\lambda ii,$$\mathit{\text{ λij}}$ respectively denote the coefficients, variance and covariance of the model when covariance of the latent construct is fixed.

9 Using Paternoster et al.’s suggestion, z statistics is calculated by the following formula: $z=\frac{b1-\mathrm{b}2}{\sqrt{{\mathrm{\sigma }1}^2+{\mathrm{\sigma }2}^2}}.$ b₁, b₂, σ₁ and σ₂ respectively denote the coefficients in Model 1 and Model 2, standard errors in Model 1 and Model 2.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Xiuhua Wang

Xiuhua Wang received her BA and MA from Renmin University of China. She has since earned an MS in statistics and her Ph.D. in sociology at Baylor University. She has published several papers in American scholarly journals and at present is exploring religion and mental health in China.

Kenneth Vaughan

Kenneth Vaughan is an Assistant Professor in Residence at the University of Connecticut between the Storrs and Waterbury campuses. His research interests include religion, politics, international sociology, religious freedom, and democracy. He has published research on religious disparities in Lebanese politics, religion and Asian immigration to the United States, education and health, and religiosity among Korean Americans.