SPIRTUALITY AND ANEXIETY IN STUDENTS
Investigation of the role of spirituality in
decreasing anxiety in graduate students in college
Regardless of the origin of anxiety and depression, being at a young age is a risk factor in
itself.(Matar Boumosleh & Jaalouk, 2017). Our study aims to identify the relationship
between religion and anxiety and depression on campus. We hypothesize that more time
praying can relieve students' anxiety and improve mood states such as depression. The
present study results support the hypothesis that increasing praying time during the week
can enhance students' ability to fight anxiety. There are two key findings of the present
research. First, religion can improve the mood of believers more than non-religious people.
Second, a period of praying is critical to improving anxiety and depression. This pattern of
results is consistent with the previous literature. It is shown that meditation can relieve
anxiety. (Saeed et al., 2019). In addition, it is depicted that religion and praying can
ameliorate the anxiety of death. (Jong, 2021). There are at least two potential limitations
concerning the results of this study. The first limitation concerns that participants think
asking a question about religion breaches their privacy. A second potential limitation is that
participants only believe in their religion. Despite these limitations, these results suggest
several theoretical and practical implications that regardless of religious type, meditation and
talking to supernatural power can ease their pain. In terms of future research, it would be
useful to extend the current findings by examining large populations including different layer
of society.
SPIRTUALITY AND ANEXIETY IN STUDENTS
Conclusion This study's results gain us to better understand how to improve lifestyle at a
young age under stressful conditions.
Results
Of the 35 participants who completed the initial screening survey, 15 participants (42.8%)
participants were excluded for not meeting the study criteria, as they did not believe in
religion. The rest of the participants equal 20 (57.1%) meet the study criteria. Response
rates are presented in Table 1. To assess whether a time of praying improves participants'
anxiety and depression, we operationalized performance in the timing of prayer. For each
participant, the time of praying was was calculated base on self-report hours in the
questionnaire. Each item in the questionnaire was related to choosing from the following
alternatives: never 1 - almost never 2 – sometimes 3 - fairly often 4 - very often. Figure 1
When all questionnaires were administered online response rate comes out for prayer time
(M=1.66, SD=0.49) and anxiety and depression (M=3.25, SD=0.86). h The findings produced a
statistically significant effect of prayer on lessening anxiety and depression. [ t(10)= -
5.167,p<0.001, Cl(-1.311, -4.947)
SPIRTUALITY AND ANEXIETY IN STUDENTS
Figure 1
Relation between pray time and anxiety and depression
SPIRTUALITY AND ANEXIETY IN STUDENTS
Table 1
References
SPIRTUALITY AND ANEXIETY IN STUDENTS
Jong, J. (2021). Death anxiety and religion. Curr Opin Psychol, 40, 40-44.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.08.004
Matar Boumosleh, J., & Jaalouk, D. (2017). Depression, anxiety, and smartphone addiction
in university students- A cross sectional study. PLoS One, 12(8), e0182239.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182239
Saeed, S. A., Cunningham, K., & Bloch, R. M. (2019). Depression and Anxiety Disorders:
Benefits of Exercise, Yoga, and Meditation. Am Fam Physician, 99(10), 620-627.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31083878
