Religious faith and involvement with religious organizations provide a boost to mental health, according to a public policy study released by Sutherland Institute this week.

“Religious Contributions to Mental Health” is the fourth volume of a series called “Social Benefits of Religion,” which has earlier looked at the impact of faith and faith practice on social services, constitutional rights and education.

At a time when religious attendance is down, it seems important to look at various contributions that faith and faith practices make to the life of both individuals and much larger communities, Bill Duncan, constitutional law and religious freedom fellow at Sutherland, told Deseret News. He co-wrote the report with Ford Copple and Jason Mata.

Mental health is especially salient, Duncan said, because mental health challenges abound right now. “We’re trying to give people a sense of what religion can do and perhaps also respond to some concerns that people have or might have based on a long-standing critique that churches can be harmful to mental health and make them feel guilt when they shouldn’t and things like that,” he said.

The numbers are sobering. Even before the pandemic, the surgeon general called mental health the “leading cause of disability and poor life outcomes in young people, with up to 1 in 5 children ages 3 to 17 in the U.S. with a reported mental, emotional, developmental or behavioral disorder.”

The pandemic, per the report, “accelerated existing trends to make the existence of a crisis unmistakable.”

The report highlights more statistics, including that in a youth mental health survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42% of high school students said they experienced “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” with more than 1 in 5 seriously pondering suicide.

Visits to emergency departments have increased, as have suicides among teens and young adults.

And it’s not just a problem for youth. The CDC found that 1 in 5 U.S. adults experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression in 2023 and that from 2020 to 2023, nearly 1 in 10 adults reported depression.

Religious participation and faith are, Sutherland reports, of great mental health benefit. And Duncan said that going to services and participating in activities with others seems to be more helpful than just believing. Affiliating is not as strong as active participation, though it’s still helpful.

Increased loneliness can increase the risk of early death, heart disease, stroke, anxiety, depression and dementia. Loneliness may even increase susceptibility to viruses and respiratory illness, per the report. Participating in religious activities can increase the feeling of belonging, creating a strong sense of community. And it can also reduce social isolation, which is not the same as loneliness.

The report cites the Harvard Youth Poll of 2,096 Americans ages 18-29 which found that of those who call religion “very important” in their lives, 62% felt a sense of community belonging, a sentiment shared by just 46% of those who aren’t religious.

The caveat arises here, too. Studies suggest you need to show up. According to the Springtide Research Institute, participation seems to be more important than merely identifying with a religious or spiritual group. The Sutherland report said that “the social aspect of religious practice, as opposed to mere affiliation, is essential.” Another study found that “private or subjective aspects of religiosity” didn’t boost life satisfaction “independent of attendance and congregational friendship.”

Mental health, as the report notes, can be positive or negative. Lots of people are happy and have a sense of well-being. That’s more common, per the report, among those who embrace religion.

In its collection of data, the report cites Pew Research Center, which found that “36% of the actively religious describe themselves as ‘very happy’ compared with 25% of the inactively religious and 25% of the unaffiliated.”

The Springtide Research Institute report that was among research Sutherland studied said “the more religious or spiritual a person is, the more likely they are to say they’re flourishing.” The numbers were higher for religious than for spiritual.

During the pandemic, young adults, especially men, who turned to religion for strength and counseling better regulated their emotions “for improved mental well-being” than did others.

Striving for flawlessness is for many a goal and may be an aspect of faith practice, but it can also be toxic when it becomes the foundation of what the report calls “merciless self-criticism.” That’s not good for mental health and leads to poor outcomes.

“Many assume that religion creates or at least exacerbates negative perfectionism since many faiths promote demanding moral standards,” the report said, then countered that “empirical research casts doubt on simplistic assumptions.”

Both religious association and an unaffiliated faith in God tend to be linked with lower levels of toxic perfectionism compared to those with no religion, per the report. “Regarding statistically significant differences, Latter-day Saints and those of other religions had lower toxic perfectionism than atheists and agnostics and former Latter-day Saints,” the report said, citing a 2024 Brigham Young University study on perfectionism.

Religion and religious participation are viewed as protective against depression. The Sutherland report cites a number of studies — from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to research published in peer-reviewed journals — that find those with more severe depression benefit more from religiosity even than those who are less depressed.

Duncan said he was surprised to see that with severe depression, active involvement with religion seems more helpful than cognitive behavioral therapy. He would like to see more researchers look closely at that to understand the connection and perhaps how it could be used to help people.

“We’ll obviously need to see if that continues to be replicated, but it was definitely an interesting fact,” he said.

The effect of religion on other types of mental illness is less clear. Duncan said much less is known about how religion impacts complex conditions like schizophrenia. “There’s some research that suggests religious beliefs can be helpful but not nearly as much research as on topics like depression, for instance,” he said.

Studies may be a bit contradictory, too. One study suggests little effect on stress or anxiety, while another said it depends on whether one’s religious thoughts are positive or negative. The latter can increase anxiety. The Sutherland authors note that “participation appears to be more protective than affiliation or personal spirituality” when it comes to anxiety disorders.

Some international studies suggest high levels of spirituality or religiosity are likely helpful for those with bipolar or post-traumatic stress disorders.

In the case of severe mental illness, “religious support and enduring with faith were positively associated with recovery,” according to a study cited from the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

“There is significant evidence that religion can be protective against suicide,” the Sutherland report said.

A 2018 study in the British Journal of Psychiatry reported that people who attended religious services 24 times or more a year were “half as likely” to die by suicide as those who attended less. Other research suggests the findings hold true across different races, as well.

The report suggests one reason may be because religious association mobilizes resources to deal with suicide ideation.

Clergy are often able to connect those with mental health challenges to resources that can help them, the report said. Congregants go to them for help. They may observe challenges and be able to spot and respond to a person’s distress. And it’s a topic that clergy can address as they preach, as well.

The American Psychiatric Association found 60% of people with a religious community said they would be apt to consult a faith leader if they struggled with mental health. Nearly 7 in 10 said if a religious leader recommended they seek mental health care, they would do so.

Duncan said it could be worrisome if people say they just talked to their pastor or a neighbor and considered that all the help needed when maybe they actually needed more. “But that doesn’t appear to be what’s happening. It seems like these religious leaders in particular are really trying to take seriously this effort and because they’re the ones that people go to in these moments, that probably suggests there’s an opening to make something good happen.”

The report acknowledges that not all ecclesiastical leaders have been trained to deal with mental health issues, “but they can still encourage members to access mental health resources and even connect them to professional help.”

Religion’s role in improving or protecting mental health creates a ripple effect, because communities benefit when those within them have better mental health. According to the volume’s authors, people with improved mental health can be role models who encourage others to get help.

And fewer mental health challenges helps the economy, too, by reducing lost productivity, increasing educational attainment, helping children succeed in school, reducing chronic health conditions and in other ways.

The report concludes that “professional training that is sensitive to religious concerns should be a priority,” and notes that when accreditors or professional organizations exclude individuals or institutions because of their religious beliefs, instead of making room for those beliefs, they can do overall harm.

“States should ensure that accreditors accommodate decisions based on the religious missions of colleges and universities, as some currently do,” the report said.