Researchers ask for your help - in study of faith

Christians are being asked to help with an academic study, which asks if having religious belief helps you cope with the stresses of everyday life.

Does prayer help when times get tough?

University researchers are trying to discover if there is a measurable difference between those of us with and without a faith – in terms of how we cope with stress.

There are many stories about how faith has helped different individuals through hardships, but these are difficult to measure, and so hard to match up against the experience of people who have faced similar struggles, but without a faith to rely upon.

Now Dr Clare Cunningham, from the University of Abertay’s School of Social and Health Sciences, who researches areas of human psychology, is leading an online study that tries to overcome this.

Participants fill in an anonymous questionnaire via a dedicated website, which probes them for general information about themselves (age, gender etc) and then leads on to questions about their religious beliefs, and the way they deal with stress.

And the research team are keen to recruit participants with various kinds of religious belief, as well as those with none.

Research assistant Gisele Rodriguez said: “We are interested to know whether having a strong religious faith helps in the management of stress.

“We would like you to take part whether you consider yourself to have a religion or not and welcome responses from all denominations and level of engagement in religious practices as well as from people who do not consider themselves as having a faith.”

To find out a bit more about the study, click here to take the questionnaire, which takes approximately 20 – 30 minutes, click here.

Do you have a story about how your faith helped you through a tough time? Share it in the comments, and help encourage us all.