From ritual to personal conversation:

Developmental transitions in children’s concepts of prayer

Jacqueline D. WoolleyDepartment of Psychology

The University of Texas

Children’s concept of prayer◦ As ritual◦ As personal conversation

Problem

Increased attention within psychology to children’s religious and spiritual development

Developmental transitions in children’s concept of prayer

Woolley & Phelps, 2001; Bamford & Lagatutta, 2010

Increased attention to use of prayer in therapy with children

Walker, Doverspike, Ahmed, Milevsky, & Woolley, in press

Background

Does children’s concept of prayer develop from one in which prayer is primarily understood as ritual to one in which prayer is viewed as a personal conversation with God?

How is children’s concept of prayer related to their beliefs about its efficacy in ameliorating emotional distress?

How does this vary as a function of children’s religious background?

Research Questions

Four- to 10-year-old children from 2 Christian and 2 Jewish denominations

Primary tasks: Understanding of prayer as ritual and as private conversation with God

Additional tasks◦ Awareness of different types of prayer◦ Concept of God◦ Individual differences in creativity, theory of mind◦ Family religiosity differences (parent

questionnaire)

Research Overview

Age: Children between the ages of 4 and 10.◦ Previous research in my lab (Woolley & Phelps,

2001) shows that 4-year-old Christian children have a rigid notion of prayer, believing that it can only be engaged in at certain times and in certain places.

◦ Research by Bamford and Lagatutta (2010) shows that, whereas younger children claim that positive emotions motivate prayer, older children (by age 8) claim that both negative and positive emotions motivate prayer.

Research Participants

Religious background: Christian, Jewish◦Christianity. Prayer is practiced both communally

and privately. There are few requirements regarding characteristics of person/people praying.

Catholicism – more ritualistic Methodistism – less ritualistic

◦ Judaism. Prayer is practiced primarily communally. Ideal form of prayer involves at least 10 Jewish males. Prayers are chanted and meticulously scripted.

Orthodox – closer adherence to restrictions (more ritualistic)

Reformed – loosening of restrictions (less ritualistic)

Research Participants (continued)

◦ 1. Children’s conception of prayer as ritual versus as private conversation with God

◦ 2. Beliefs about motivations for engaging in each type of prayer and potential outcomes of engaging in each type of prayer.

◦ These will be assessed by the use of A) interviews B) story tasks – children predict character’s behavior,

story is completed, children explain why and predict character’s emotional outcome

Methods:Primary questions

Different types of prayer “Gimme!” “Thanks!” “Oops!” “Wow!”

- Rabbi Marc Gellman

Methods: Secondary questions

Concepts of God◦ Anthropomorphism

Does the extent to which children grant human-like characteristics to God affect their understanding of prayer as conversation?

◦ Beliefs about God’s abilities What kinds of acts is God capable of?

◦ Beliefs about God’s temperament Is God mean or nice?

Methods: Secondary questions

Creativity Ability to generate personal prayers

Existence of Imaginary Companion Expertise in communicating with unseen other

Theory of Mind Advanced social and perspective taking skills

Methods: Individual differences

1. Children may develop from holding a ritualistic view of prayer to viewing prayer as a personal conversation with God.

2. Children may view personal conversation with God as more therapeutic than ritual prayer.

3. These may vary by religious background. 4. This information will inform us about

children’s religious and spiritual development and can also be used to structure prayer interventions in therapy.

Expected findings and significance