Beyond the Socially Desirable: Longitudinal Evidence on Individual Prayer-Wellbeing Associations

The often touted positive association between religion and wellbeing is mainly based on evidence from cross-sectional studies. This is problematic because such studies tend to draw conclusions at the individual level despite reporting associations at the group level. In addition to this fallacy, inf...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Møller, Anne Buch (Author) ; Schjødt, Uffe (Author) ; Jensen, Jens Søndergaard (Author) ; Frølund Pedersen, Heidi (Author) ; Purzycki, Benjamin Grant (Author) ; Ørnbøl, Eva (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group [2020]
In: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Year: 2020, Volume: 30, Issue: 4, Pages: 275-287
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Prayer / Frequency / Wellness
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AE Psychology of religion
CB Christian life; spirituality
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:The often touted positive association between religion and wellbeing is mainly based on evidence from cross-sectional studies. This is problematic because such studies tend to draw conclusions at the individual level despite reporting associations at the group level. In addition to this fallacy, inferences at the group level are also likely to be inflated by the social desirability effect, which may further exacerbate misrepresentations of the individual level. To avoid these pitfalls, we examined prayer-wellbeing (P-WB) associations and social desirability effects at both levels, using single-level and multilevel regression analysis on a longitudinal dataset. Weekly reports of prayer and wellbeing from 282 frequently praying Danish Christians, totaling 4254 complete responses, were combined with a comprehensive background questionnaire featuring a social desirability measure targeting the religious domain. A typical weak positive P-WB association was observed at the group level, which disappeared when controlling for social desirability. At the individual level, the average association across individuals was positive after controlling for social desirability. This overall relationship, however, conceals considerable individual variance with almost a fourth of the estimated individual P-WB associations going in the negative direction, emphasizing the need to be cautious when extrapolating group-level data to the individual level. These findings suggest that cross-sectional studies may oversimplify the P-WB relationship, especially, if the social desirability effect is ignored.
ISSN:1532-7582
Contains:Enthalten in: The international journal for the psychology of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/10508619.2020.1753330