Effects of a Brief Spiritual Intervention on Perceived Stress During COVID-19

Abstract

There is an increased need for self-administered coping strategies to combat the threat to mental health posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. The current study investigated the feasibility of using spiritual connection as a way of coping with chronic stress emerging from the global pandemic. Participants (N = 122) recruited from a college sample were randomly assigned to complete either daily spiritual connection tasks or a no treatment control group for a week and then completed measures of perceived stress, spiritual health, and spiritual beliefs at baseline, 4-day, and 7-day time points. No differences in perceived stress over the week were found between groups, but participants in the spiritual condition who showed increases in spiritual health showed decreases in perceived stress. These findings may help to illuminate potential pathways of leveraging specific aspects of spirituality to combat chronic, global stress exposures.