Prayer and Mental Well-Being in the United States: An Overview of Original and Comprehensive Prayer Data

The Baylor Religion Survey (Wave 6; 2021) contains the most comprehensive set of prayer questions of any national survey of the USA; it also contains multiple indicators of mental health and well-being, specifically measures of happiness, depression, anxiety, sense of control, mattering, and dignity...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:  
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Froese, Paul 1968- (Autor) ; Bonhag, Rebecca (Autor) ; Uecker, Jeremy E. (Autor) ; Andersson, Matthew A. (Autor) ; Upenieks, Laura (Autor)
Tipo de documento: Electrónico Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Verificar disponibilidad: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publicado: 2024
En: Journal of religion and health
Año: 2024, Volumen: 63, Número: 6, Páginas: 4745-4772
Otras palabras clave:B Mattering
B Dignity
B Happiness
B Depresión
B Anxiety
Acceso en línea: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Descripción
Sumario:The Baylor Religion Survey (Wave 6; 2021) contains the most comprehensive set of prayer questions of any national survey of the USA; it also contains multiple indicators of mental health and well-being, specifically measures of happiness, depression, anxiety, sense of control, mattering, and dignity. This paper provides a complete overview of how various dimensions of prayer correlate with these different aspects of well-being. While many of these relationships will require more intensive investigation, our synopsis provides confirmation of past expectations using new data. Overall, we find that prayer is related to mental well-being in both positive and negative ways. Specifically, we find that praying with others and positive emotions felt during prayer are correlated with greater overall mental health and more positive self-concepts. However, we also find that petitionary prayer topics, belief that God is impersonal, and negative emotions felt during prayer coincide with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and a lack of control. Generally, these conclusions hold after controlling for basic demographics, religious tradition, and church attendance, which confirms that mental well-being is related to the practice of prayer in both beneficial and detrimental ways.
ISSN:1573-6571
Obras secundarias:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-024-02121-5