Prayer, Meditation, and Anxiety: Durkheim Revisited
John Bartkowski, Gabriel Acevedo, Harriet Van Loggerenberg
Religions September 14, 2017 DOI: 10.3390/rel8090191 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | American adults |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation |
| Key findings | Frequent communal prayer is associated with increased anxiety-related symptoms, while worship service attendance is associated with fewer such symptoms; meditation shows no association with anxiety. |
Abstract
Durkheim argued that religion’s emphasis on the supernatural combined with its unique ability to foster strong collective bonds lent it power to confer distinctive social benefits. Subsequent research has confirmed these propositions with respect to religion and mental health. At the same time, meditation has been linked to mental health benefits in intervention-based studies. Our investigation offers a unique test of two comparable inhibitors of anxiety-related symptoms in the general population, namely, prayer versus meditation. Using data from the 2010 wave of the Baylor Religion Survey, we find that frequent communal prayer is correlated with an increased incidence of anxiety-related symptoms whereas worship service attendance is negatively associated with reported anxiety. Attendance also combines with communal prayer to yield anxiety-reducing benefits. Meditation, measured as a dichotomous indicator, is unrelated to reported anxiety in our sample of American adults. Our study underscores the selective efficacy of collective forms of religious expression, and points to several promising directions for future research.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on anxiety, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychological flexibility mediates the relations between acute psychedelic effects and subjective decreases in depression and anxiety. International sample of people who reported having used a psychedelic | 2020 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 985 |
| The Challenging Experience Questionnaire: Characterization of challenging experiences with psilocybin mushrooms Internet survey respondents reporting challenging experiences with psilocybin | 2016 | Questionnaire development and validation | |
| Psychedelics and Mental Health: A Population Study Adult population in the United States | 2013 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 130,152 |
| Ecstasy/MDMA attributed problems reported by novice, moderate and heavy recreational users Ecstasy users who participated in a WWW study of recreational drug use | 2002 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 282 |
| 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) used in a naturalistic group setting is associated with unintended improvements in depression and anxiety. Adults who used 5-MeO-DMT in a group setting with structured procedures | 2019 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 362 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
- Prayers and Mindfulness in Relation to Mental Health among First-Generation Immigrant and Refugee Muslim Women in the USA: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Religion and Health June 24, 2022
- Effect of Praying Meditation: "God in a breath" on Reducing Blood Pressure in Hypertension Patients Media Karya Kesehatan May 31, 2021
Cites 8
- Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being JAMA Internal Medicine January 6, 2014
- Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders American Journal of Psychiatry July 1, 1992
- Does Mindfulness Meditation Improve Anxiety and Mood Symptoms? A Review of the Controlled Research The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry April 1, 2007
- Neural correlates of mindfulness meditation-related anxiety relief Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience April 24, 2013
- How do mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction improve mental health and wellbeing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of mediation studies. Clinical Psychology Review April 1, 2015
and 3 more in the library