Spirituality and Prayer on Teacher Stress and Burnout in an Italian Cohort: A Pilot, Before-After Controlled Study
Frontiers in Psychology January 21, 2020 Francesco Chirico, Manoj Sharma, Salvatore Zaffina et al.
A randomized trial with 50 teachers and support staff at a Catholic school tested a prayer-based program to prevent burnout. Over two months, participants received two 30-minute sessions weekly combining individual Christian prayer and prayer-reflection focus groups. At the four-month follow-up, emotional exhaustion dropped from 16.80 to 4.92, depersonalization from 3.72 to 0.60, and psychological impairment from 10.08 to 2.04, while job satisfaction rose from 45.96 to 77.00. Effect sizes ranged from moderate to large. The authors suggest prayer may be as effective as meditation or other mind-body techniques for reducing occupational stress.