Abstract
There has been increased interest in the relationships between religiosity, meditation practice and well-being, but there is lack of understanding as to how specific religious components and distinct meditation practices could influence different positive and negative psychological adjustment outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess the explanatory power of religious beliefs and the practice of prayer, focused attention (FA), open monitoring (OM), and compassion meditation (CM) on psychological adjustment, taking into consideration a number of practice-related variables such as session length, frequency of practice and lifetime practice. Psychological adjustment was assessed by means of happiness, positive affect, depression, negative affect, and emotional overproduction. A cross-sectional design was used, with a final sample comprising 210 Spanish participants who completed an online assessment protocol. Hierarchical regressions were performed, including age, sex and psychotropic medication use in the first step as possible confounders, with the addition of religious beliefs and the practice of prayer, FA, OM, and CM in the second step. FA session length was related to all psychological adjustment outcomes: happiness (ΔR2 = 0.09, p = 0.002; β = 0.25, p = 0.001), positive affect (ΔR2 = 0.09, p = 0.002; β = 0.18, p = 0.014), depression (ΔR2 = 0.07, p = 0.004; β = -0.27, p < 0.001), negative affect (ΔR2 = 0.08, p = 0.007; β = -0.27, p < 0.001) and emotional overproduction (ΔR2 = 0.07, p = 0.013; β = -0.23, p = 0.001). CM session length was related to positive affect (β = 0.18, p = 0.011). CM practice frequency was associated with happiness (ΔR2 = 0.06, p = 0.038; β = 0.16, p = 0.041). Lifetime practice of FA was related to happiness (ΔR2 = 0.08, p = 0.007; β = 0.21, p = 0.030) and OM to emotional overproduction (ΔR2 = 0.08, p = 0.037; β = -0.19, p = 0.047). Religious beliefs and prayer seemed to be less relevant than meditation practices such as FA, OM, and CM in explaining psychological adjustment. The distinct meditation practices might be differentially related to distinct psychological adjustment outcomes through different practice-related variables. However, research into other forms of institutional religiosity integrating social aspects of religion is required.
Highlights
The longest session length of practice was found in focused attention (FA) (Mn = 15.95 min; standard deviations (SD) = 12.97), while the shortest session length of practice was observed in prayer (Mn = 8.57 min; SD = 17.52)
The largest lifetime practice experience was found in FA (Mn = 82.75 months; SD = 102.69), while the shortest lifetime practice experience was observed in compassion meditation (CM) (Mn = 37.85 months; SD = 80.02)
When comparisons were made between techniques, findings suggested that those practicing contemplative prayer, a type of prayer that could be considered in the attentional group of meditation practices (Dahl et al, 2015), showed higher levels of altruism toward strangers, and lower levels of neuroticism (O’Connor et al, 2015), with length of practice predicting positive outcomes, as we have found in FA meditation
Summary
Religiosity has been associated with a variety of psychological well-being outcomes and seems to provide a protective function against mental illness (Koenig and Larson, 2001; Hebert et al, 2007; Candy et al, 2012; Balbuena et al, 2013; Bonelli and Koenig, 2013; Barton et al, 2013; Macilvaine et al, 2013; Pargament and Lomax, 2013; Gonçalves et al, 2015). It has been proposed that different forms of religiosity might be differentially related to distinct forms of psychological adjustment (Hackney and Sanders (2003)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
