The Effect of Religious Practices on Mental and Spiritual Health

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effects of using a religious mobile app (i.e., Pray.com) in participants who have high levels of stress. The main question it aims to answer is:

•What are the effects of using Pray.com on stress in individuals who report high levels of stress?

Participants will complete measures at baseline (i.e., Time 1), four-weeks (i.e., Time 2), and eight weeks (i.e., Time 3). Participants will be randomly assigned one of three conditions: (1) autonomous use (directed to use the app daily), (2) meditative prayer condition (directed to use this feature of the app daily), or (3) wait-list control condition.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stress
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: pray.com app (autonomous use); Behavioral: pray.com app (meditative prayer condition)

Detailed Description

Participants (N = 300) will be adults recruited through social media and faith-based organizations. Participants will first complete a brief screener to determine eligibility for the study.

Eligible participants will be invited to participate in the study. Participants will read an informed consent document that will give information about the study and their rights as participants. Participants will be given the opportunity to contact the research team and ask questions. If they agree to participate, participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions. Condition 1 is the control condition (i.e., no intervention condition). In Condition 2, participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to use the app five days per week (i.e., autonomous use condition). In Condition 3, participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to listen to a meditation prayer five days per week (i.e., meditative prayer condition). Participants will receive periodic reminders on their phone if they have not used the app.

All participants will fill out a series of online questionnaires monthly for a two-month time-period (i.e., Baseline / Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3). Participants will receive a link from the research team when it is time for them to fill out their questionnaire via a secure online data collection portal. After finishing the study, participants will be debriefed and given the opportunity to ask questions about their participation.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 312
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • La Mirada, California, United States, 90639
      • Biola University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• over the age of 18
• own a smart phone and be willing to download a mobile app
• willing to engage in a Christian practice on a mobile app
• score of 14 or greater on the Perceived Stress Scale (indicating at least a moderate level of stress)

Exclusion Criteria:

• n/a

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: no intervention condition; no intervention
Experimental: autonomous use condition; Participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to use the app five days per week.	Behavioral: pray.com app (autonomous use); Participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to use the app five days per week.
Experimental: meditative prayer condition; Participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to listen to a meditation prayer five days per week.	Behavioral: pray.com app (meditative prayer condition); Participants will be given a free subscription to the Pray.com app and will be directed to listen to a meditation prayer five days per week.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceived Stress Scale	minimum value: 0, maximum value: 4, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of stress (i.e., worse outcome)	2 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale	minimum value: 0, maximum value: 3, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of anxiety/depression (i.e., worse outcome)	2 months
Mindful Attention Awareness Scale	minimum value: 1, maximum value: 6, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of mindfulness (i.e., better outcome)	2 months
Copenhagen Burnout Inventory--personal Subscale	minimum value: 0, maximum value: 4, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of burnout (i.e., worse outcome)	2 months
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory	Each component score of the scale ranges from 0 to 3, with 3 indicating the greatest dysfunction or disturbance. The seven component scores are then summed to obtain a total score, which ranges from 0 to 21. Higher scores indicate poorer sleep quality, with a score greater than 5 suggesting significant sleep difficulties	2 months
Religious Commitment Inventory	minimum value: 1, maximum value: 5, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of religious commitment (i.e., better outcome)	2 months
Spiritual Well-Being Scale	minimum value: 1, maximum value: 6, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of spiritual well-being (i.e., better outcome)	2 months
Satisfaction With Life Scale	minimum value: 1, maximum value: 7, higher average item scores indicate higher levels of satisfaction with life (i.e., better outcome)	2 months
Productivity	Participants' level of productivity was measured by three items (Vogel et al., 2022): Participants were asked to rate their responses on a scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Participants' mean responses were calculated, with higher scores indicating higher perceived efficiency and productivity	2 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Biola University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Todd Hall, PhD, Biola University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 30, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 10, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): March 10, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 8, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 15, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): November 18, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): October 10, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 17, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: F22-011

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No