2007/12/15 by Leslie J. Francis, Mandy Robbins, Christopher Alan Lewis +1 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development #Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction #Psychoticism #Prayer #Eysenck Personality Questionnaire #Neuroticism #Protestantism #Psychology #Personality #Mental health #Clinical psychology #Extraversion and introversion #Big Five personality traits #Psychiatry #Social psychology #Religious studies
paper · doi:10.1080/13674670701709055
openalex publication_date 2007/12/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Eysenck's dimensional model of personality includes two indicators of psychological health, defined as neuroticism and psychoticism. In order to examine the association between psychological health and prayer, two samples of sixth-form pupils in Northern Ireland (16- to 18-year-olds) attending Catholic (N = 1246) and Protestant (N = 1060) schools completed the abbreviated Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire alongside a simple measure of prayer frequency. The data demonstrated a positive association between prayer frequency and better levels of psychological health as assessed by Eysenck's notion of psychoticism. Among pupils attending both Catholic and Protestant schools, higher levels of prayer were associated with lower psychoticism scores. Among pupils attending Catholic schools, however, higher levels of prayer were also associated with higher neuroticism scores.