The Effects of Prayer on Children’s Hot and Cool Regulatory Processes

A large body of research has demonstrated that the ability to control one's behaviors and emotions is associated with a wide range of outcomes.Moreover, several studies demonstrated that religious practices are related to better self-regulation.However, these studies have primarily been correlational, and, to the best of our knowledge, no study has demonstrated whether religious practices affect both emotional and cognitive regulation in children.In this context, the current research investigated the effects of prayer on children's affective (hot) and cognitive (cool) self-regulation.A total of 69 children (N =69, males =34, Mage =5.0) participated in this study.Children were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions.In the prayer condition, the participants were shown a picture of God in prayer and led in a short prayer by the experimenter.In the control-intention condition, participants stated their intentions without referencing prayers or God.In the control-recite condition, participants were instructed to recite neutral sentences without religious or self-relevant coping content.Subsequently, children completed a delay of gratification task to assess hot regulation and an inhibitory control task with neutral stimuli to assess cool regulation.The results of the study demonstrated that prayer helped improve children's affective, but not cognitive, self-regulation.