Religious attendance and social support have been found to be positively associated with mental well-being, although this may be threatened by depression. Here we studied whether religious attendance was associated with mildness of depression and whether social support explained this association among 1,179 patients in community mental health services in Kuopio province, Finland. More women (20%) than men (11%) attended religious events regularly. In logistic regression, mildness of depression (Beck Depression Inventory score ≤ 10) was associated with regular religious attendance in females but not in males. No higher-degree associations between religious attendance, social support, and mild depression were found in log-linear models. Religious attendance may be important in protecting mental well-being, but social support is not the explanation.
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