Modelling the effect of worship attendance and personal prayer on spiritual well-being among 9- to 11-year-old students attending Anglican church schools in Wales

Abstract

Modelling the effect of worship attendance and personal prayer on spiritual wellbeing among 9-to 11-year-old students attending Anglican church schools in Wales This study employs a modified form of the Fisher 16-item Feeling Good, Living Life measure of spiritual wellbeing (assessing quality of relationships across four domains: self, family, nature, and God) among a sample of 1,328 students drawn from year five and year six classes within Church in Wales primary schools, alongside measures of frequency of worship attendance and frequency of personal prayer. The data demonstrate frequency of personal prayer is a much stronger predictor than frequency of worship attendance in respect of spiritual wellbeing. This finding is consistent with the view that personal prayer is a key factor in the formation of individual spirituality.

Personal prayer, worship attendance and spiritual wellbeing: a study among fourth, fifth and sixth class students attending Church of Ireland schools in the Republic of Ireland

“…The second objective of the present study was to reflect on the level of spiritual wellbeing recorded on the modified Fisher instrument by students in the Republic of Ireland, compared with the students in Wales reported by Francis, Fisher, Lankshear, and Eccles (2018). The original study in Wales reported a mean score of 63.1 with a standard deviation of 10.4.…”

“…This paper set out to replicate, to build on and extend the study reported by Francis, Fisher, Lankshear, and Eccles (2018) conducted among 9-to 11-year-old students attending Anglican schools within Wales. This replication of the original work, conducted among students attending Anglican schools within the Republic of Ireland, makes four original contributions to knowledge.…”

“…The first objective of the present study was to test the psychometric properties of the modified form of the Fisher Living Life index as adapted by Francis, Fisher, Lankshear, and Eccles (2018) for application among students attending Anglican schools. The data supported the psychometric properties of this instrument and commended it for further application.…”

“…Against this background, the aim of the present study is to replicate the research reported by Francis, Fisher, Lankshear, and Eccles (2018) within a sample of Anglican (Church of Ireland) first-level schools within the Republic of Ireland. There are two main purposes for undertaking this replication study.…”

“…While cumulatively sex, age, and frequency of church attendance accounted for 6% of the variance in spiritual wellbeing, frequency of personal prayer accounted for an additional 13% of the variance. On the basis of this finding Francis, Fisher, Lankshear, and Eccles (2018) conclude that the role of personal prayer in promoting spiritual wellbeing may be the most crucial practical outcome from the research for those concerned with promoting spiritual wellbeing within Anglican schools. On these grounds, they argue, personal prayer may be considered an important aspect within the educational agenda of Anglican schools.…”