To my knowledge, Mormon women have not been shown to have higher rates of depression than others. As a State, Utah women fill a lot of antidepressant prescriptions, but I am unaware if the ~20% active LDS who make up the population have been studied as a group. (It would be an impossible study to do). Sometimes we need to be careful as to how we extrapolate statistics dealing with an entire population to a specific sub-population within the overall group. Another case in point is pornography use in Utah. Which sub-population within Utah is the biggest user? When it was once thought, based on suspect evidence, that the rate of use was exceptionally high in Utah, it was automatically assumed that the primary users were the active LDS population: quite a flaw in reasoning. (Of course since then, better evidence demonstrates that Utah has lower rates of pornography access than most other States.)
As for many Utah women wondering what it would have been like to not have dedicated their lives to family and child rearing, Gail Sheehy's landmark book "Passages" (and the subsequent follow-up books) is informative. All men and women follow a certain pattern of adult longings and development regardless of their personal beliefs and motivations. Such is earth life and none are immune. Women in the home feel angst wondering what life would have been outside the home. Women who dedicated their younger lives to the workplace feel regret for not having a home life. Women, and men, all tend to follow certain patterns at different ages/states of life and one's belief system is certainly important in bringing some unifying theme to the course of ones life.
I have often in life marveled that I was not more rich and handsome than I was, looking at the world around me. Now that I am getting older, and I observe the surrounding world, I increasingly count my blessings for having neither of the qualities of being rich and handsome.
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Stephen WightNovember 4, 2016
To my knowledge, Mormon women have not been shown to have higher rates of depression than others. As a State, Utah women fill a lot of antidepressant prescriptions, but I am unaware if the ~20% active LDS who make up the population have been studied as a group. (It would be an impossible study to do). Sometimes we need to be careful as to how we extrapolate statistics dealing with an entire population to a specific sub-population within the overall group. Another case in point is pornography use in Utah. Which sub-population within Utah is the biggest user? When it was once thought, based on suspect evidence, that the rate of use was exceptionally high in Utah, it was automatically assumed that the primary users were the active LDS population: quite a flaw in reasoning. (Of course since then, better evidence demonstrates that Utah has lower rates of pornography access than most other States.) As for many Utah women wondering what it would have been like to not have dedicated their lives to family and child rearing, Gail Sheehy's landmark book "Passages" (and the subsequent follow-up books) is informative. All men and women follow a certain pattern of adult longings and development regardless of their personal beliefs and motivations. Such is earth life and none are immune. Women in the home feel angst wondering what life would have been outside the home. Women who dedicated their younger lives to the workplace feel regret for not having a home life. Women, and men, all tend to follow certain patterns at different ages/states of life and one's belief system is certainly important in bringing some unifying theme to the course of ones life. I have often in life marveled that I was not more rich and handsome than I was, looking at the world around me. Now that I am getting older, and I observe the surrounding world, I increasingly count my blessings for having neither of the qualities of being rich and handsome.
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