Many psychological studies have emerged in recent years detailing the decreased risky behavior and low rates of depression amongst church-going adolescents. Religious services create a social community where kids can gain the support of peers and feel like they belong.

As it turns out, however, such studies failed to recognize that these rates can increase among particular minority groups, including females, Latinos, and Asian-Americans. A new study, conducted by Richard Petts, a sociology professor at Bell State University, unveils new information about the relationship between religion and depression:

The study found that white and African-American adolescents generally had fewer symptoms of depressive at high levels of religious participation. But for some Latino and Asian-American adolescents, attending church more often was actually affecting their mood in a negative way.

Asian-American adolescents who reported high levels of participation in their church had the highest number of depressive symptoms among teens of their race.

Likewise, Latino adolescents who were highly active in their church were more depressed than their peers who went to church less often. Females of all races and ethnic groups were also more likely to have symptoms of depression than males overall.

What could explain this?

The results suggest that something unique was affecting adolescents within these two groups when they went to church often. Petts believes that the traditional nature of religion for these two groups may be conflicting with the ideals and customs of mainstream American society. This conflict may be putting additional stress on these youth as they try to balance competing principles and traditions, he said.

“Asian and Latino youth who are highly involved in a culturally distinct church may have a more difficult time balancing the beliefs of their family and their traditional culture with mainstream society. Their religious institution is telling them what should be important in their lives and how to behave, and mainstream society is saying something else,” he said.

It should be noted that the study also discovered that Latinos who never attended church services did have higher depression rates than white and African-American teens, though Asian-Americans who never attended church services had the lowest rates.