I Will Sing to the Lord as Long as I Live: Christian Music as an Effective Coping Mechanism for Catholic Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Religious coping is the effort to understand and deal with life stressors in ways related to that which is considered sacred (Pargament, 2005). Research on religious coping has also extended to research on the concept of prayer as an effective coping mechanism (Bade & Cook, 1998; 2008).For many Christians, Christian music can be a form of prayer and is something they may turn to for encouragement, healing, and coping with stress. Music is a safe place for people to grow in self-knowledge and work at a deeper emotional and psychological level (Holland, 1995).Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore the level of attachment distress in Catholic-Christian undergraduate students’ relationship with God and how prayer and listening to Christian music elicit behavior in coping with distress as well as overall stress in life. Empirical research on this has not been conducted, even though mental health patients' use of liturgical recitations has been well researched and documented (Rosmarin, 2018). In this study, participants’ attachment relationship to God was examined by utilizing the Attachment to God Inventory (AGI; Beck & McDonald, 2004). Additionally, the particular role that prayer and Christian music serve in coping with challenging life events was measured by utilizing the Prayer Functions Scale (PFS; Bade & Cook, 1997).This dissertation is a pilot study that presents a detailed analysis explaining the methodology of how the participants were surveyed as well as an overview of the AGI and PFS and other demographic scales utilized. The procedures used for examining the data were also studied. The results indicated that among such populations, Christian music is recommended to aid in coping with stress and increase emotional intimacy and a more secure attachment to God. Finally, the work concludes with a discussion of the results and possible directions for future study.