Prayer and Mental Health in Later Life: The Role of Positive Emotions

Abstract

Prayer is used as a coping resource to mitigate the adverse influences of stressful life situations on mental health. However, the mechanisms underlying its impact on mental health in later life still need to be better understood. In particular, scant research attention has been paid to the significance of prayer in enhancing positive emotions (e.g. compassionate love), which can lead to improved mental health. Using data from our nationwide web-based survey (n = 1,861), we evaluated if compassionate love mediates the relationship between prayer and mental health. Our findings suggest participants who prayed had significantly higher feelings of being loved (b = .19, p < .001) and lower depressive symptoms. Compassionate love significantly mediated prayer’s effect on depressive symptoms (b = −0.40, p < .001) and anxiety (b = −0.19, p < .001). Our findings highlight the importance of prayer in enhancing positive emotions and well-being in later life.