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In last few decades, interest has grown concerning the possible relationship between religion and mental health. Researchers have realized that religion plays a larger role in many people’s lives than previously thought especially for people in the United States. “In surveys, over 90% of Americans report an identification with some faith group (Kosmin & Lachman, 1993), and over 80% rate religion as “fairly important” or “very important” (Gallup, Jr. 1995)” (p. 402). It has become clear that when dealing with mental health issues and concerns many people turn to religion.
For instances, a study by Morgan (1982) found that people from various churches have “a preference for seeking help from ministers or Christian counselors, rather than secular psychotherapists…” (p. 403).
This has led researchers to believe that there may be a possible connection between religion and mental health. To better understand the possible relationship between religion and mental health researchers have been studying the relationship between prayer and anxiety. However, it has proven to be difficult to study.
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Researchers have been unable to pin point what the true effects of prayer are on anxiety (Anchor & Sandier, 1979; Elkins, 1977; Elkins, Finney & Malony, 1985b). Though, it has been hypothesized that prayer may either increase or decrease anxiety (Elkins, 1977) the findings remain unclear.
A possible reason for the mixed findings may be because researchers have found it hard to create a working definition of “prayer” (p. 405). Despite, the fact that studies have been mixed, one study (Schneider & Kastenbaum, 1993) found that hospice caregivers found that praying helped them deal with the “emotional stresses of their jobs” (p. 405).
The researchers in the present study investigated prayer function preferences and anxiety control. It was hypothesized that “different prayer function preferences would produce different levels of correlation with participants’ self-reported ability to control their level anxiety” (p. 406). It was also hypothesized that “use of the deferring/avoiding prayer function would predict higher levels of trait anxiety and lower levels of perceived control over anxiety” (p. 406).
Lastly, it was hypothesized that the use of the active prayer functions such as “seeking assistance, seeking acceptance, and seeking calm/focus” would lead to “lower levels of trait anxiety and higher levels of perceived control over anxiety” (p. 406). The study consisted of a convenience sample of 85 psychology student participants with 49 women and 36 men ranging from 17 to 32 years old from a Southwestern university. It should also be noted that the participants were offered course credit for participating in the study.
In the sample, the largest ethnic group was Caucasian, then Hispanic, then African-American, and finally Native American. Sixty-one students identified themselves as Protestant, twenty-two identified themselves as Catholic, and two identified themselves as Mormon (p. 406). Prayer function preference was the independent variable, and the dependent variables were levels of trait anxiety and perceived control over anxiety. The participants were given surveys to complete. The researchers used a Prayer Functions Scale (PFS) (Bade & Cook, 1997) to find how much people use prayer for “specific coping functions” (p. 406). They measured whether the prayer was used to give acceptance, to calm and focus, to defer and avoid, or to give assistance (p. 406).
The Anxiety Control Questionnaire (AXCQ) (Rapee, Craske, Brown, & Barlow, 1996) that measures two factors 1) perceived control over emotional responses and 2) perceived control over outside threats (p. 407) was used as well in this study. Finally, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait Scale (STAI-T) that was created by Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene (1970) was used to measure “state and trait anxiety” (p. 407). All the researchers’ hypotheses were supported by the data. A significant amount of variation among prayer function in perceived anxiety control and trait anxiety was found (p. 410). Using the PFS measure the researchers found that using active prayer styles led to a greater amount of perceived anxiety control and less trait anxiety (p. 410). Deferring and avoiding prayer styles led to less perceived anxiety control and more trait anxiety (p. 410).
This shows that people who use a defer and avoid prayer style may not effectively cope with anxiety but people that use an active prayer style may be better at effectively coping with anxiety (p. 410). More research does need to be conducted but the results do suggest that prayer style does matter and that people who use deferring and avoiding prayer styles may be more prone to having poor mental health (Holahan Moos & Schaefer, 1996) (p. 410). There are some limitations in this study; one of the limitations is that there is very little research on religion and mental health and as stated before the research that has been done remains very unclear. This makes it difficult to confirm the findings of this study and see how the results fit into the bigger picture when looking at the connection between religion and mental health.
Another limitation is that the sample was a convenience sample; it was made up of psychology students from a Southwestern university. Having only psychology students threatens external validity. Lastly, another limitation that threatens external validity is that the sample was composed of mainly Caucasian students, therefore, it makes it difficult to generalize the results to other groups. Despite these limitations the study provides a better understanding of the possible connection between religion and mental health. The study shows how functions such as prayer can be used within the mental health care system to deal with mental health issues such as anxiety and so forth in the future.
Prayer can Decrease Anxiety. (2021, Dec 10). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/prayer-can-decrease-anxiety-essay
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