Centering Prayer as a Healing Response to Everyday Stress: A Psychological and Spiritual Process

Ferguson, Jane K.; Willemsen, Eleanor; Castaneto, Maylynn V.

doi:10.1007/s11089-009-0225-7

Cited by 67 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…This relationship may be explained by the reduced smoking due to religious practices such as prayer (Ferguson, Willemsen, & Castañeto, 2010) or meditation (Oman, Shapiro, Thoresen, Plante, & Flinders, 2008) that may fulfill the need that smoking does. According to some authors, stress levels are inversely associated with smoking (Childs & de Wit, 2010).…”

Section: Evaluated Alcohol Use Among College Students and Found Alcohmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religiosity and Tobacco and Alcohol Use in a Brazilian Shantytown

Lucchetti

Peres

Lucchetti

et al. 2012

Substance Use & Misuse

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Section: Evaluated Alcohol Use Among College Students and Found Alcohmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religiosity and Tobacco and Alcohol Use in a Brazilian Shantytown

Lucchetti

Peres

Lucchetti

et al. 2012

Substance Use & Misuse

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“…As this literature has evolved, researchers have identified several aspects of religious life that may be responsible for these potentially beneficial stress buffering effects, including church-based support [2], specific religious coping responses [3], feelings of control that are based on religion [4], prayer [5], and a religious sense of meaning in life [6]. So far, the wide majority of studies have focused on the benefits that are conveyed by deeper involvement in religion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious doubt, financial strain, and depressive symptoms among older Mexican Americans

Krause

2012

Mental Health, Religion & Culture

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Purpose A number of studies suggest that positive aspects of religion (e.g., social support from fellow church members) help older people cope more effectively with stress. However, researchers have known for some time that there are negative as well as positive facets of religion. This suggests that instead of enhancing coping efforts, religion may also exacerbate the effects of stress. The purpose of this study was to see if one negative aspect of religion (i.e., religious doubt) exacerbates the effects of financial strain on depressive symptoms among older Mexican Americans. Methods A nationwide survey of 1,005 older Mexican Americans was conducted. Measures of religious doubt, financial strain, and depressive symptoms were administered. Results The findings suggest that the effects of financial strain on depressive symptoms are stronger for older Mexican Americans who have more doubts about religion. Conclusions This study explores aspects of religion that have received relatively little attention in the literature (i.e., religious doubt). Moreover, the data were provided by members of an ethnic group that have been largely overlooked by researchers who study religion (i.e., older Mexican Americans). Taken together, these study attributes help provide greater balance in the literature on religion and mental health in late life.

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“…Similarly, Ferguson et al. () suggest that involvement in religious activities can increase the likelihood of receiving social support, and this, in turn, has been found to moderate the impact of stress among parents of children on the autism spectrum (Dunn and O'Brien, ) and can be extended to support staff working with children with disabilities (Tarakeshwar et al., ). The results of the study, taken together, show that Islamic religious practices enhance cognitive and affective perceptions of life as being purposeful and meaningful (Abu‐Raiya and Pargament, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious coping, meaning‐making and stress: perspective of support staff of children with disabilities in residential disability centres in Oman

Emam

Al-Bahrani

2014

Research in Spec Educ Needs

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Staff providing support to children with disabilities in residential disability centres in Oman are exposed to stressful work environments which may put them at an increased risk of burnout. Previous research has examined predictors of stress in disability support staff, but there is little consensus as the findings are inconclusive. Using a cross‐sectional design, a short survey examined religious coping styles, meaning and inner sense of peace, attitude to meaning in life, organisational religiousness practices and stress of 142 female disability support staff from community disability centres in Oman. Multiple regression analyses indicated that positive religious coping was more predictive of stress than negative religious coping. There was an association between meaning‐making and stress in disability support staff. Religious organisation explained most of the variance in stress scores and was the best predictor of stress in disability support staff. Implications of the study are discussed in relation to the role of both culture and religion.

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Centering Prayer as a Healing Response to Everyday Stress: A Psychological and Spiritual Process

Cited by 67 publications

References 23 publications

Religiosity and Tobacco and Alcohol Use in a Brazilian Shantytown

Religiosity and Tobacco and Alcohol Use in a Brazilian Shantytown

Religious doubt, financial strain, and depressive symptoms among older Mexican Americans

Religious coping, meaning‐making and stress: perspective of support staff of children with disabilities in residential disability centres in Oman

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