Examining the role of maternal religiosity in offspring mental health using latent class analysis in a UK prospective cohort study

Abstract

Background Previous research has examined the role of parental religious belief in offspring mental health, but has revealed inconsistent results, and suffered from a number of limitations. The aim of this study is to examine the prospective relationship between maternal religiosity and offspring mental health and psychosocial outcomes. Methods We used latent classes of religious belief (Highly religious, Moderately religious, Agnostic, Atheist) in mothers from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children from 1990, and examined their association with parent-reported mental health outcomes and self-reported psychosocial outcomes in their children at age 7-8 (n = 6079 for mental health outcomes and n = 5235 for psychosocial outcomes). We used inverse probability weighted multivariable logistic regression analysis adjusted for maternal mental health, adverse childhood experience, and socioeconomic variables. Results There was evidence for a greater risk of internalising problems among the offspring of the Highly religious and Moderately religious classes [e.g. for depression; OR 1.40. 95% CI (1.07-1.85), OR 1.48, 95% CI (1.17-1.87)], and greater risk of externalising problems in the offspring of the Atheist class [e.g. for ADHD; OR 1.41, 95% CI (1.08-1.85)], compared to the offspring of the Agnostic class. Conclusions These novel findings provide evidence associations between maternal religiosity and offspring mental health differ when examined using a person-centred approach, compared to the previously used variable-centred approaches. Our findings also suggest that differences may exist in the relationship between religious (non)belief and mental health variables when comparing the UK and US.