Religiosity and Depression among Older Adults of Kashmir

India is gradually turning into graying nation. With increased life expectancy there is more number of citizens above 60–65 age range now. However the changes that come in later life – retirement, death of spouse, increased isolation - can lead to different psychological problems among which depression is quite common. At the same time, studies indicate that religion is a potent coping strategy that helps a person to adjust to the stresses in life and is associated with decreased rates of mental illness. The present study was undertaken to compare religiosity and depression among elderly Kashmiris across different socio-demographic variables and to find the relation of religiosity and depression among these older adults of Kashmir. The sample consisted of 184 older adults (102 elderly males & 82 elderly females) taken from different districts of Kashmir. The age of the sample groups ranged from 58–76 years with mean age of 67 years. Allport and Ross's Religious Orientation Scale (ROS 1967) and Aaron Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II 1996) was used. T-test was applied to test the significance of difference between groups and Pearson's Product Moment Correlation was used to determine the relationship between religiosity and depression level of these older adults. Results revealed that most of these older adults (77.17%) have moderate level of religious orientation and only few (22.28%) were found to be high on religiosity. As on depression it was found that most of them (53.80%) have high level of depression. The findings also revealed no significant mean difference in the depression level of older adults with respect to various socio-demographic variables but significant mean difference in the religiosity was found on few variables. Results further reveal that religiosity has significant negative correlation with depression. Thus religiosity was found to be acting as a good coping mechanism in such patients.