Using the life course perspective, we assess the “resources” and “risks” to mental health associated with transitions in religious attendance between early life and midlife and how this process may be influenced by education. Drawing on over 35 years of prospective panel data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, baseline models suggest that stable, frequent attendance accumulated between adolescence to midlife and increases to frequent attendance by adulthood are associated with the lowest depression relative to consistent nonattenders. Individuals who declined in their religious participation report higher depression. Education conditioned this association, whereby declines in religious participation negatively impacted the health of those without a college degree more strongly and increases benefitted the well-educated to a greater extent. We combine insights from the life course perspective and work on social stratification and religiosity to interpret our results and offer directives for future research.

使用生命历程的角度，我们评估了与早年和中年之间宗教信仰转变相关的心理健康“资源”和“风险”，以及教育如何影响这一过程。根据国家青年纵向研究超过 35 年的前瞻性面板数据，基线模型表明，相对于一贯不参加的人而言，从青春期到中年期间积累的稳定、频繁的出勤率和成年期频繁出勤率的增加与最低的抑郁症相关。宗教参与度下降的人报告抑郁程度更高。教育条件这个协会，宗教参与的减少对没有大学学位的人的健康产生了更强烈的负面影响，而宗教参与的增加则在更大程度上使受过良好教育的人受益。我们结合从生命历程的角度和社会分层和宗教信仰的见解来解释我们的结果并为未来的研究提供指导。