The Effect of Prayer on Depression and Anxiety: Maintenance of Positive Influence One Year after Prayer Intervention

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Boelens ◽  
Roy R. Reeves ◽  
William H. Replogle ◽  
Harold G. Koenig

Objective: To investigate whether the effect of direct contact person-to-person prayer on depression, anxiety, and positive emotions is maintained after 1 year. Design, Setting, and Participants: One-year follow-up of subjects with depression and anxiety who had undergone prayer intervention consisting of six weekly 1-hour prayer sessions conducted in an office setting. Subjects (44 women) completed Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression and Anxiety, Life Orientation Test, and Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale after finishing a series of six prayer sessions and then again a month later in an initial study. The current study reassessed those subjects with the same measures 1 year later. One-way repeated measures ANOVAs were used to compare findings pre-prayer, immediately following the six prayer sessions, and 1 month and again 1 year following prayer interventions. Results: Evaluations post-prayer at 1 month and 1 year showed significantly less depression and anxiety, more optimism, and greater levels of spiritual experience than did the baseline (pre-prayer) measures ( p < 0.01 in all cases). Conclusions: Subjects maintained significant improvements for a duration of at least 1 year after the final prayer session. Direct person-to-person prayer may be useful as an adjunct to standard medical care for patients with depression and anxiety. Further research in this area is indicated.

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 322-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam A. Mosing ◽  
Nancy L. Pedersen ◽  
Nicholas G. Martin ◽  
Margaret J. Wright

AbstractOptimism has a positive influence on mental and somatic health throughout lifetime and into old age. This association is mainly due to shared genetic influences, with some indication of sex differences in the heritability of these and related traits (e.g., depression and subjective wellbeing). Here we extend our initial study of Australian twins by combining with data available from Swedish twins, in order to increase the power to explore potential sex differences in the genetic architecture of optimism, mental and self-rated health and their covariation. Optimism, mental, and self-rated health were measured in 3053 Australian (501 identical female (MZf), 153 identical male (MZm), 274 non-identical female (DZf), 77 non-identical male (DZm), and 242 non-identical opposite-sex twin pairs, and 561 single twins; mean age 60.97 ± 8.76), and 812 Swedish (71 MZf, 53 MZm, 93 DZf and 67 DZm twin pairs, and 244 single twins; mean age 60 ± 14.3) twin individuals using the Life Orientation Test (LOT), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and a single-item self-rating of overall health, respectively. In females all three traits were moderately heritable (.27–.47), whereas in males heritability was substantially lower (.08–.19), but genetic modeling showed that sex differences were not significant. The absence of significant sex differences, despite the consistent trend across the two cohorts, is likely due to a lack of power, raising the importance for future studies, on the same or similar traits, to utilize large samples and to keep the possibility of sex differences in mind when conducting their analyses.


2002 ◽  
Vol 90 (3_part_2) ◽  
pp. 1129-1135
Author(s):  
Elise E. Labbé ◽  
Irma Lopez ◽  
Lisa Murphy ◽  
Carol O'brien

Psychosocial functioning was compared between 32 caregivers of children with Batten's disease, a terminal, neurodegenerative illness, and with 20 caregivers of children with epilepsy or cerebral palsy. Caregivers’ optimism was expected to be associated with better psychosocial functioning, regardless of the children's illness. A multivariate analysis of covariance indicated caregivers of children with Battens disease had significantly ( p < .01) higher depression and anxiety scores on the Symptom Checklist-90 and demands on health and time schedule scores measured by the Caregiver Reaction Assessment than the comparison group. Pearson product-moment correlations were significant and ranged from –.52 to –.48 ( p < .01) for scores on Life Orientation Test optimism and psychosocial functioning as measured by the Family Environment Scale and the SCL-90 for all participants. Findings suggest that caregivers of children with Battens disease experience greater psychological distress than the comparison group and that optimism is positively related to better caregivers’ psychosocial functioning regardless of the type of illness.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S210-S210 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Baqer

IntroductionThe focus of interest in this study is to investigate the relationship between happiness and optimism, satisfaction with life, hope, depression, and anxiety. Many efficient instruments have been used in this study, however there is no study until this date that has used the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) within Arabic countries and Kuwaiti samples specifically.ObjectivesThe aim of the study is to investigate the correlations between happiness and optimism, satisfaction with life, hope, depression and anxiety.MethodsThe sample consisted of 510 students from Kuwait University, 270 females and 240 males, with a mean age of 22.8 (SD = 4.1). The OHQ 0.90 alpha was administered to participants, in addition to the Arabic version of Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) 0.70, The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) 0.78, The Hope Scale (AHS) 0.60, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) 0.87 and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) 0.95. Correlations were used in this study.ResultsThe results revealed that all the correlations between OHQ and other scales were significant. Positive correlations have been found with LOT-R r = 0.50, SWLS r = 0.44, and AHS r = 0.39, while there were negative correlations with BDI-II r = −0.38 and BAI r = −0.17.ConclusionIt was concluded that happiness correlates positively with other personality variables: optimism, satisfaction with life and hope, while it correlates negatively with Depression and Anxiety.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.


2002 ◽  
Vol 90 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1129-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elise E. Labbé ◽  
Irma Lopez ◽  
Lisa Murphy ◽  
Carol O'Brien

Psychosocial functioning was compared between 32 caregivers of children with Batten's disease, a terminal, neurodegenerative illness, and with 20 caregivers of children with epilepsy or cerebral palsy. Caregivers' optimism was expected to be associated with better psychosocial functioning, regardless of the children's illness. A multivariate analysis of covariance indicated caregivers of children with Battens disease had significantly ( p < .01) higher depression and anxiety scores on the Symptom Checklist-90 and demands on health and time schedule scores measured by the Caregiver Reaction Assessment than the comparison group. Pearson product-moment correlations were significant and ranged from –.52 to –.48 ( p < .01) for scores on Life Orientation Test optimism and psychosocial functioning as measured by the Family Environment Scale and the SCL-90 for all participants. Findings suggest that caregivers of children with Battens disease experience greater psychological distress than the comparison group and that optimism is positively related to better caregivers' psychosocial functioning regardless of the type of illness.


Diagnostica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-74
Author(s):  
Sakari Lemola ◽  
Antje von Suchodoletz ◽  
Katri Räikkönen ◽  
Catherine Gunzenhauser

Zusammenfassung. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist die Untersuchung der psychometrischen Eigenschaften, faktoriellen Struktur und konvergenten Validität der deutschsprachigen Version des Parent Rated Life Orientation Test of Children (PLOT) zur Messung von Optimismus und Pessimismus bei 4 bis 6-jährigen Vorschulkindern. Eltern von 145 Kindergartenkindern (77 Mädchen; Alter: M = 5.0, SD = 0.6 Jahre) schätzten Optimismus und Pessimismus sowie Emotionsregulation der Kinder ein. Außerdem wurde das Problemverhalten der Kinder (Eltern- und Erzieherinneneinschätzung) erfasst. Konsistent zu Studien mit Schulkindern und Jugendlichen zeigte sich eine zweidimensionale Faktorenstruktur mit einem Optimismus- und einem Pessimismusfaktor. Die Ergebnisse ergaben theoriekonforme Zusammenhänge mit Problemverhalten und Emotionsregulation der Kinder. Insgesamt weisen die gefundenen Reliabilitäts- und Validitätswerte auf eine gute Verwendbarkeit des PLOT bei Vorschulkindern hin. Das neue Messverfahren kann einen Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis von Zukunftserwartungen bei Vorschulkindern leisten und als Screening-Instrument zur Identifikation von Kindern mit einem Entwicklungsrisiko dienen.


Author(s):  
Michael F. Scheier ◽  
Charles S. Carver ◽  
Michael W. Bridges

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian C. L. Lai ◽  
Xiaodong Yue

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-32
Author(s):  
Héctor Alvarado Collantes ◽  
Ángela María Herrera Álvarez

El presente estudio tuvo por objetivo determinar la relación existente entre autoconepto personal, nivel de ansiedad y comprensión lectora en estudiantes de educación secundaria. El diseño que se reporta es descriptivo correlacional. La muestra estuvo constituida por 260 estudiantes varones y mujeres del VII ciclo de educación secundaria del colegio N°0025, del distrito de Ate, de la Urbanización San Gregorio, a quienes se les aplicaron los siguientes instrumentos: el cuestionario de autoconcepto personal (APE) de Eider Goñi Palacios (2009); la escala de ansiedad, el LOT, y el LOT-R; Life Orientation Test, de Sheier, Carver y Bridges (1994); y la prueba de comprensión lectora de Cabanillas (2004). A partir del análisis de los resultados, se concluye que existe una relación significativa entre autoconcepto personal, nivel de ansiedad y comprensión lectora en estudiantes de educación secundaria.


Relay Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 306-318
Author(s):  
Hatice Karaaslan

This article elaborates on a follow-up mentoring session conducted with a junior colleague who had frequent contact with me over a period of one year during her coursework as she considered me a senior instructor with substantial research experience. The purpose was to exploit the strategies of advising in a mentoring context utilizing intentional reflective dialogue (IRD) to encourage reflection on professional well-being. To facilitate the process and achieve an in-depth analysis of her level of professional well-being, I employed Seligman’s (2011) PERMA model, explaining professional well-being with reference to its components of positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. In the article, I briefly give information on the context and background, the purpose, and the professional well-being model used. I then outline the flow of the session, and point out and discuss how the strategies of advising have been exploited through a series of IRD exchanges in an effort to stimulate an in-depth discussion. Finally, I present my personal reflections as well as the potential implications to be considered while conducting mentor-mentee sessions and improving professional well-being in educational settings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ran Zhang ◽  
Luming Zhao ◽  
Lin Wu ◽  
Hongxu Chen ◽  
Gaoxing Zhou ◽  
...  

The framing effect is a key topic that has been insufficiently studied in research on behavioral decision making. In our study we explored the effects of optimism on self-framing and risky decision making. Participants were 416 undergraduates who responded to the Life Orientation Test and a self-framing test based on the Asian disease problem. The results demonstrate that, compared with people low in optimism, highly optimistic individuals tended to use more positive words to describe problems, generate more positive frames, and choose more risky options. There was also a significant self-framing effect: Participants with a negative frame tended to be risk-seeking, whereas those with a positive frame tended to avoid risks. Additionally, selfframing suppressed the effect of optimism on risky decision making. We can conclude that optimism has significant effects on self-framing and risky decision making.


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