Sora Pazer, Timothy Kardam , 2026. "Prayer and Christian Community as Meaning-Oriented Channels of Suffering Canalization: A Logotherapeutic Mediation Model Predicting Stress and Life Satisfaction" International Journal of Community Empowerment & Society Administration [IJCESA] Volume 3, Issue 1: 18-26.
This study tested a logotherapy-informed process model in which prayer quality and Christian community quality function as distinct channels facilitating suffering canalization—defined as the capacity to translate suffering into meaning clarification, responsibility translation, and attitudinal work toward the unchangeable. In a cross-sectional sample of adults in Christian contexts (N = 100), prayer quality and community quality each uniquely predicted suffering canalization when controlling for suffering intensity, age, and baseline religiosity. Suffering canalization, in turn, was strongly associated with lower perceived stress and higher life satisfaction. Bootstrap mediation analyses indicated robust partial mediation, with suffering canalization accounting for a substantial proportion of the associations between prayer/community quality and both outcomes. Findings support an empirically tractable logotherapeutic mechanism and suggest that practice quality—rather than general religiosity—may be central for transforming suffering into psychologically adaptive meaning and responsibility.
[1] Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Sage.
[2] Ano, G. G., & Vasconcelles, E. B. (2005). Religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(4), 461–480. doi:10.1002/jclp.20049
[3] Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173
[4] Breitbart, W., Rosenfeld, B., Pessin, H., Applebaum, A., Kulikowski, J., Lichtenthal, W. G., & Chi, D. D. (2015). Meaning-centered group psychotherapy: An effective intervention for improving psychological well-being in patients with advanced cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 33(7), 749–754. doi:10.1200/JCO.2014.57.2198
[5] Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385–396.
[6] Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310–357.
[7] Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334.
[8] Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75.
[9] Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man’s search for meaning (I. Lasch, Trans.). Beacon Press. (Original work published 1946)
[10] George, L. S., & Park, C. L. (2016). Meaning in life as comprehension, purpose, and mattering: Toward integration and new research questions. Review of General Psychology, 20(3), 205–220.
[11] Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
[12] Koenig, H. G., King, D. E., & Carson, V. B. (2012). Handbook of religion and health (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
[13] Längle, A. (2003). The search for meaning in life and the fundamental existential motivations. Psychotherapy in Australia, 10(1), 14–19.
[14] Längle, A. (2003). The method of “personal existential analysis.” European Psychotherapy, 4(1), 37–53.
[15] MacKinnon, D. P. (2008). Introduction to statistical mediation analysis. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[16] Martela, F., & Steger, M. F. (2016). The three meanings of meaning in life: Distinguishing coherence, purpose, and significance. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(5), 531–545.
[17] Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. Guilford Press.
[18] Pargament, K. I., Smith, B. W., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. (1998). Patterns of positive and negative religious coping with major life stressors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37(4), 710–724. doi:10.2307/1388152
[19] Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. M. (2000). The many methods of religious coping: Development and initial validation of the RCOPE. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56(4), 519–543. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-4679(200004)56:4<519::AID-JCLP6>3.0.CO;2-1
[20] Park, C. L. (2005). Religion as a meaning-making framework in coping with life stress. Journal of Social Issues, 61(4), 707–729. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00428.x
[21] Park, C. L. (2010). Making sense of the meaning literature: An integrative review of meaning making and its effects on adjustment to stressful life events. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 257–301. doi:10.1037/a0018301
[22] Park, C. L. (2013). The meaning making model: A framework for understanding meaning, spirituality, and stress-related growth in health psychology. The European Health Psychologist, 15(2), 40–47.
[23] Park, C. L., & Folkman, S. (1997). Meaning in the context of stress and coping. Review of General Psychology, 1(2), 115–144. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.1.2.115
[24] Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891. doi:10.3758/BRM.40.3.879
[25] Szabó, K., & Baji, I. (2025). The current status and applications of logotherapy and existential analysis: A narrative review. Developments in Health Sciences, 8(2), 82–100. doi:10.1556/2066.2025.00083
[26] Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The Meaning in Life Questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 80–93.
[27] Vos, J., Craig, M., & Cooper, M. (2015). Existential therapies: A meta-analysis of their effects on psychological outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83(1), 115–128. doi:10.1037/a0037167
[28] Wong, P. T. P. (2010). Meaning therapy: An integrative and positive existential psychotherapy. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 40(2), 85–93. doi:10.1007/s10879-009-9132-6
Logotherapy; Meaning-Making; Religious Coping; Prayer; Christian Community; Suffering; Mediation; Perceived Stress; Life Satisfaction.