Religion and health : the application of a cognitive-behavioural framework

The empirical examination of the relationship between religion and health has often lacked theoretical direction. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between dimensions of religiosity and health within the context of James and Wells’ cognitive-behavioural framework of religion. A community sample of 177 UK adults completed measures of religious orientation, religious coping, and prayer activity alongside the SF-36 Health Survey. Consistent with the cognitive-behavioural framework of religion, intrinsic religiosity and meditative prayer scores accounted for unique variance in both physical and mental health scores over a number of religious measures. These findings suggest the potential usefulness and importance of a cognitive-behavioural framework to understand the relationship between religion (as measured by meditative prayer and intrinsic religiosity) and health

The stress and trauma of school victimization in Ireland: A retrospective account

As part of an international study examining student victimization (by both peers and educators) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, 154 Irish university students completed the �Student Alienation and Trauma Scale�Revised�. This examined retrospective accounts of negative experiences in school, identified worst school experiences, and assessed whether an individual developed PTSD symptomatology. Items regarding verbal/relational aggression were reported for both the negative experiences and the worst experience. Whilst 3.1% of males and 16.3% of females reported clinically significant PTSD resulting from their worst school experience, a further 3.1% of males and 3.1% of females were in the �at risk� range

Religion and happiness: Consensus, contradictions,comments and concerns

The relationship between religion and happiness has been the focus of much research. The present review provides a critical examination of this research and, in particular, focuses on conceptual and methodological concerns. The majority of studies report a positive association between measures of religion and happiness; however, contradictory findings are common. This is exemplified in the literature that has systematically employed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity alongside two different measures of happiness among a variety of samples. Two opposing conclusions have found consistent support. Research with the Oxford Happiness Inventory has consistently found religiosity to be associated with happiness, while research employing the Depression–Happiness Scale has consistently found no association. It is argued that such contradictions may reflect both conceptual and methodological weaknesses in this literature

Temporal stability of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity: Test-retest data over five weeks

Recently Lewis, Cruise, and Mc Guckin (2005) have reported on the test-retest reliability of the 7-item version of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity; however, their study was limited. The present aim was to evaluate the temporal stability of both the 24- and 7-item versions of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity over a five-week period among a sample of 114 Irish undergraduate university students. Data demonstrated that stability across the two administrations was very high for both the 24- (r = .95) and 7-item (r = .94) versions. These data support the short-term test-retest reliability of both the 24- and 7-item versions of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity