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...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs: Froese, Paul 1968- (Auteur) ; Bonhag, Rebecca (Auteur) ; Uecker, Jeremy E. (Auteur) ; Andersson, Matthew A. (Auteur) ; Upenieks, Laura (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publié: 2024
Dans: Journal of religion and health
Année: 2024, Volume: 63, Numéro: 6, Pages: 4745-4772
Sujets non-standardisés:B Mattering
B Dignity
B Dépression
B Happiness
B Anxiety
Accès en ligne: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Résumé: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
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-024-02121-5