TY - JOUR
T1 - Christmas cards
T2 - are senders full of joy and good cheer?
AU - Gallagher, Stephen
AU - Howard, Siobhan
AU - McMahon, Jennifer
AU - Palmieri, Carlo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - People with depression often struggle with Christmas. The festive period is often associated with parties, social engagement, putting up Christmas trees among other behaviours. Here, in a large UK population level dataset, we examine whether higher depressive symptomatology was associated with frequency of sending Christmas cards, and if this varied by religious affiliation. Retrospective observational study. Participants were 2,416 individuals within the UK who completed data from 2013 to 2015 within Wave 5 of the longitudinal survey ‘Understanding Society’. Data on depressive symptoms 12-General Health Questionnaire, frequency of sending Christmas cards, and religious affiliation were extracted. A higher percentage (54.5%) of those without depressive symptoms reported ‘Always’ sending Christmas cards, compared to 46.0% of those with depressive symptoms χ2 (2) = 8.71, p < .001. After adjusting for religious affiliation, this remained significant only for Christians after holding, gender, relationship status and ethnicity constant. Christians with depression (20%) were more likely to ‘Never’ send Christmas cards, while those not depressed were 53% more likely to ‘Always’ send them, p < .01. In those identifying as Christians not sending a Christmas card was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. This might help provide a way to identify loved ones, friends or colleagues who may need help and support at Christmas.
AB - People with depression often struggle with Christmas. The festive period is often associated with parties, social engagement, putting up Christmas trees among other behaviours. Here, in a large UK population level dataset, we examine whether higher depressive symptomatology was associated with frequency of sending Christmas cards, and if this varied by religious affiliation. Retrospective observational study. Participants were 2,416 individuals within the UK who completed data from 2013 to 2015 within Wave 5 of the longitudinal survey ‘Understanding Society’. Data on depressive symptoms 12-General Health Questionnaire, frequency of sending Christmas cards, and religious affiliation were extracted. A higher percentage (54.5%) of those without depressive symptoms reported ‘Always’ sending Christmas cards, compared to 46.0% of those with depressive symptoms χ2 (2) = 8.71, p < .001. After adjusting for religious affiliation, this remained significant only for Christians after holding, gender, relationship status and ethnicity constant. Christians with depression (20%) were more likely to ‘Never’ send Christmas cards, while those not depressed were 53% more likely to ‘Always’ send them, p < .01. In those identifying as Christians not sending a Christmas card was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. This might help provide a way to identify loved ones, friends or colleagues who may need help and support at Christmas.
KW - Cards
KW - Christians
KW - Christmas
KW - Depressive Symptoms
KW - Religion
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142817753&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/23311908.2022.2151727
DO - 10.1080/23311908.2022.2151727
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85142817753
SN - 2331-1908
VL - 10
JO - Cogent Psychology
JF - Cogent Psychology
IS - 1
M1 - 2151727
ER -