Disclosure to God as a Mediator Between Private Prayer and Psychological Well-Being in a Christian Sample
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Disclosure to God as a Mediator Between Private Prayer and Psychological Well‑Being in a Christian Sample Beata Zarzycka1 · Dariusz Krok2 Accepted: 6 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract 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. Keywords Private prayer · Disclosure to God · Well-being
Introduction Private prayer, which is one of the indicators of religious faith, has been described as “the very soul and essence of religion” (James 1902, p. 361). Many authors have considered private prayer’s positive relationship to an individual’s mental health (Laird et al. 2004; Poloma and Pendleton 1991; Whittinton and Scher 2010). The research has documented positive correlates, including greater purpose in life, * Beata Zarzycka [email protected] 1
Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20‑950 Lublin, Poland
2
Institute of Psychology, Opole University, Opole, Poland
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Religion and Health
enhanced marital satisfaction, existential well-being (Laird et al. 2004), as well as negative correlates, including depression, anxiety, and drug use (Ladd and Spilka 2013). However, little work has been done to investigate what mechanisms explain prayer’s relationship with mental health (Pérez et al. 2011; Winkeljohn Black et al. 2015). A few constructs, for example perceived God mediated control (Jeppsen et al. 2015), trust-based beliefs in prayer (Pössel et al. 2014), internal dialogues (Puchalska-Wasyl and Zarzycka in print), rumination, and social support (Pérez et al. 2011) have been analyzed as potential mediators in the relationship between prayer and mental health. Winkeljohn Black et al. (2015) suggested disclosure to God as a mediator, which can explain prayer’s relationship with mental health, while tracking the type of prayer an individual most often uses. These mediating effects were analyzed in a Christian sample
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