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Disclosure During Private Prayer as a Mediator Between Prayer Type and Mental Health in an Adult Christian Sample

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Abstract

According to Poloma and Pendleton’s (J Psychol Theol 19:71–83, 1991) prayer model, there are four prayer types (colloquial, meditative, petitionary, and ritual), all of which have varying associations with mental health. However, few studies have examined what mechanisms explain these associations. The literature demonstrates that disclosing distressing information can improve mental health. Thus, the current study examined self-disclosure as a mediating variable between Poloma and Pendleton’s (J Psychol Theol 19:71–83, 1991) prayer types and mental health. It was hypothesized that self-disclosure would mediate the association between prayer types involving meaningful communication with God (colloquial and meditative prayer types) and mental health and would not mediate associations between petitionary and ritual prayer types and mental health. This cross-sectional, online study analyzed data from praying Christian adults (N = 296) to test the hypotheses. As predicted, self-disclosure mediated the positive associations between colloquial and meditative prayer types and mental health. Self-disclosure was not associated with petitionary or ritual prayer and therefore did not mediate the relationships of these prayer types with mental health, as expected. Petitionary prayer had a negative relationship to mental health, while ritual prayer had a positive relationship to mental health. The results indicate that self-disclosure is an important mediator to consider when investigating the associations between private prayer and mental health.

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Notes

  1. Because this study looks at a Christian sample, the term “God” is used throughout the article, in keeping with the language used in the self-report measures and in the literature (e.g., Froese and Bader 2007).

  2. The analyses were also performed with all four of the prayer subscales separated, and findings were consistent between the three- and four-factor models in terms of the significance and direction of the mediation findings. The findings are available from the first author for review.

  3. The results of the factor analysis can be requested from the first author.

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Correspondence to Stephanie Winkeljohn Black.

Appendix A: Revised Distress Disclosure Index items (Kahn and Hessling 2001)

Appendix A: Revised Distress Disclosure Index items (Kahn and Hessling 2001)

  1. 1.

    When I feel upset, I usually confide in God.

  2. 2.

    I prefer not to pray about my problems to God.

  3. 3.

    When something unpleasant happens to me, I often pray about it.

  4. 4.

    I typically don’t pray about things that upset me.

  5. 5.

    When I feel depressed or sad, I tend to keep those feelings to myself.

  6. 6.

    When I am in a bad mood, I pray about it.

  7. 7.

    If I have a bad day, the last thing I want to do is pray about it.

  8. 8.

    I rarely pray when I am having a problem.

  9. 9.

    When I am distressed I don’t pray.

  10. 10.

    I usually pray when I am in a bad mood.

  11. 11.

    I am willing to tell God about my distressing thoughts.

Note Items 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 are reverse scored.

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Black, S.W., Pössel, P., Jeppsen, B.D. et al. Disclosure During Private Prayer as a Mediator Between Prayer Type and Mental Health in an Adult Christian Sample. J Relig Health 54, 540–553 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9840-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9840-4

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