Prayer and Marital Intervention: Toward an Open, Empirically-Grounded Dialogue

In the lead article for this special section, we offered a framework to allow integration of prayer into marital interventions when culturally appropriate. Mindful of potential pitfalls, we concluded that effective skill based family intervention and prevention could benefit from integration of spir...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of social and clinical psychology 2008-09, Vol.27 (7), p.693-710
Main Authors: Beach, Steven R H, Fincham, Frank D, Hurt, Tera R, McNair, Lily M, Stanley, Scott M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Community
Couples
Distrust
Ethics
Intervention
Marriage
Prayers
Prevention
Prevention programs
Psychology
Religion
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Summary:In the lead article for this special section, we offered a framework to allow integration of prayer into marital interventions when culturally appropriate. Mindful of potential pitfalls, we concluded that effective skill based family intervention and prevention could benefit from integration of spiritual practices. In the commentaries, several additional issues were articulated and have prompted us to address the interrelated issues of doubt regarding efficacy, distrust of transformative processes, and the complexity of incorporating spiritual practices into marital interventions. Likewise, we discuss the ethics of integrating spiritual practices and acknowledge that the discussion is just beginning. We conclude that continued healthy debate regarding the potential benefits of spiritual interventions in the marital arena is desirable, but that there is no substitute for data. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0736-7236
1943-2771
DOI:10.1521/jscp.2008.27.7.693