Closeness and Control: Exploring the Relationship Between Prayer and Mental Health

Experiential Avoidance Mediates the Relationship between Prayer Type and Mental Health before and through the COVID-19 Pandemic

The practice of prayer has been shown to predict various mental health outcomes, with different types of prayer accounting for different outcomes. Considering the numerous stressors facing seminary students, which have only intensified throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, prayer may be a common coping strategy for students who study theology, spiritual growth, and leadership. The present study investigates the role that different types of prayer may have in reducing anxiety, depression, and work burnout among seminary students. Experiential avoidance is proposed as a mediator such that specific types of prayer contribute to greater spiritual and characterological formation through staying engaged in the midst of struggle. Longitudinal data was collected from 564 graduate seminary students from 17 institutions accredited by the Association of Theological Schools. Based on previous research, we hypothesized that experiential avoidance would mediate the relationship between colloquial, liturgical, meditative, and petitionary prayer types and the negative mental health outcomes of anxiety, depression, and work burnout. Results confirmed significant negative relationships between colloquial, liturgical, and meditative prayer types and all three mental health indicators, fully mediated by experiential avoidance. Petitionary prayer was not significantly related to lower levels of mental health. These results indicate that engaging in certain prayer practices may be a protective factor by facilitating experiential engagement.

Closeness to God, Spiritual Struggles, and Wellbeing in the First Year of College

Spirituality is an important, but oft-overlooked, aspect of the self that may affect college students’ wellbeing and belonging. Few studies have systematically examined closeness to God and spiritual struggles as predictors of college student wellbeing during early college, which is a critical window for identity development. Moreover, research exploring interactions between spiritual struggles and closeness to God in predicting wellbeing outcomes is scarce. We address these gaps in the literature with an analytic sample comprised of 839 first-year college participants who identify as religious. The results of correlational analyses and linear mixed effect models are presented. Closeness to God was associated with greater wellbeing and belonging, and spiritual struggles were associated with lower wellbeing and belonging. In exploratory analyses, a moderating effect of closeness to God on the relation between spiritual struggles and negative outcomes was observed. Implications for higher education and college student development are discussed.

Dungaw: Re-imagined Religious Expression in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Expressions of religious piety have been practiced in the Catholic Church as a response to plagues and pandemics. The faithful seek comfort in prayer and appeal to God and the saints for mercy and protection from illness and loss of life. In the Philippines, the veneration of sacred images and placing them outside the window of a house or a church is a religious expression known as "dungaw" (to look out). This paper discusses "dungaw" as a faith-response of Filipino Catholics during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is an empirical phenomenology that consists of a literary review and interviews. This paper analyzed the significance of the religious expression "dungaw." Four areas of inquiry were identified: (1) Views on the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) "Dungaw" and prayer life during the pandemic, (3) "Dungaw" as a religious expression, and (4) "Dungaw" and communal life. Results showed that Filipino Catholics utilized religion as a coping resource during turbulent times. Filipino Catholics also embodied traditional values to help repair the frayed social fabric during COVID-19.

Disclosure to God as a Mediator Between Private Prayer and Psychological Well-Being in a Christian Sample

Although a number of studies have reported the psychological and physical benefits of prayer, only a few have examined the means by which prayer affects health. Winkeljohn Black et al. (J Relig Health 54(2):540-553, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9840-4 ) found disclosure to God as a mediator in the relationship between prayer and mental health. In their study, the authors used Poloma and Pendleton's (Rev Relig Res 31(1):46-53, 1989. https://doi.org/10.2307/3511023, ) model of prayer. This study examined whether disclosure to God as a mediator can be upheld with Laird et al.'s (Int J Psychol Relig 14(4):251-272, 2004) prayer model. The study included 285 Polish adults (50.2% of women), aged between 18 and 60 years. The Multidimensional Prayer Inventory, the Revised Distress Disclosure Index, and the Psychological Well-Being Scale were applied to the research. The results showed that the prayer of thanksgiving correlated positively and the prayer of supplication negatively with well-being. Two indirect effects were significant, indicating disclosure to God as a mediator of the confession-well-being link and the supplication-well-being link.

African Americans' and Black Caribbeans' Religious Coping for Psychiatric Disorders

This study investigates the use of religious coping among African Americans and Black Caribbeans with 12-month DSM-IV psychiatric disorders. Data from the National Survey of American Life is used to examine three indicators of religious coping: 1) using prayer and other spiritual practices for mental health problems, 2) the importance of prayer in stressful situations, and 3) looking to God for strength. Three out of four respondents who had a mental health problem reported using prayer as a source of coping. Agoraphobia and drug abuse disorder were associated with the importance of prayer during stress. Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder were more likely to report that prayer was important during stressful experiences and that they looked to God for strength. These findings contribute to the limited, but growing body of research on the ways that African Americans and Black Caribbeans cope with psychiatric disorders.

Prayer in Marriage to Improve Wellness: Relationship Quality and Cardiovascular Functioning

This study examined daily partner-focused petitionary prayer (PFPP) on relationship communication and quality as well as novel indices of cardiovascular functioning in a sample of 90 adults. PFPP was compared to waitlist and meditation conditions over a 4-week period. Aortic hemodynamics via pulse wave analysis were assessed before and after the intervention. Factorial repeated measures analyses indicated that for those in the prayer condition, there were significant improvements in coronary perfusion, decreased left ventricular work, and increased coronary blood flow. Additionally, the perceived positive aspects of one's relationship improved for those in the prayer condition. Similar changes did not occur in waitlist and meditation conditions. Findings suggest that daily PFPP improves relationship quality and cardiovascular efficiency via improving protective cardiovascular mechanisms. Practical implications are briefly discussed.

The sampling precision of research in five major areas of psychology

After obtaining a sample of published, peer-reviewed articles from journals with high and low impact factors in social, cognitive, neuro-, developmental, and clinical psychology, we used a priori equations recently derived by Trafimow (Educational and Psychological Measurement, 77, 831-854, 2017; Trafimow & MacDonald in Educational and Psychological Measurement, 77, 204-219, 2017) to compute the articles' median levels of precision. Our findings indicate that developmental research performs best with respect to precision, whereas cognitive research performs the worst; however, none of the psychology subfields excelled. In addition, we found important differences in precision between journals in the upper versus lower echelons with respect to impact factors in cognitive, neuro-, and clinical psychology, whereas the difference was dramatically attenuated for social and developmental psychology. Implications are discussed.

Prayer, Attachment to God, and Changes in Psychological Well-Being in Later Life

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of prayer and attachment to God on psychological well-being (PWB) in later life.

METHOD

Using data from two waves of the nationwide Religion, Aging, and Health Survey, we estimate the associations between frequency of prayer and attachment to God at baseline with cross-wave changes in three measures of PWB: self-esteem, optimism, and life satisfaction.

RESULTS

Prayer does not have a main effect on PWB. Secure attachment to God is associated with improvements in optimism but not self-esteem or life satisfaction. The relationship between prayer and PWB is moderated by attachment to God; prayer is associated with improvements in PWB among securely attached individuals but not those who are insecurely attached to God.

DISCUSSION

These findings shed light on the complex relationship between prayer and PWB by showing that the effects of prayer are contingent upon one's perceived relationship with God.