| Abstract: |
We measure whether religious people in the UK cope better during a large
negative shock - the nationwide pandemic lockdowns. We use data from the
Understanding Society longitudinal dataset, including self-reports on religion
and religiosity taken before the pandemic, and mental health data on
unhappiness and depression, collected both before and during the lockdown
periods. We find evidence that religious people coped better during the
lockdowns. In terms of magnitude, we found that religious people (in that it
makes a difference to their life) were around one-fifth less likely to suffer
an increase in unhappiness or depression. Our results for those who belong to
a religion (regardless if it makes a difference to their life) were higher in
magnitude, but lower in significance. We found little difference in coping
across religions; with the results for Christians, Muslims and Hindus all
being broadly similar. However, we did find some difference within Christian
denominations, with ‘Christian Other’ (those belonging to mainly
Protestant churches other than the Church of England) coping relatively worse
among those who belong to a religion. We also found that when places of
worship were closed, religious Muslims and Catholics suffered
disproportionately - the two religious groups from our study that normally
require weekly communal attendance from their followers. |