A groundbreaking examination into the complex interplay between spirituality, emotional health, and sexual behavior sheds new light on the psychological mechanisms affecting individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive sexual behaviors (OCSB). Through an intricate analysis of prayer, gratitude toward a higher power, hope, and emotional states, this study peels back layers of human experience that often remain shrouded in stigma and misunderstanding. It challenges prior assumptions, revealing nuanced pathways by which spiritual practices may influence well-being and behavioral outcomes.
The researchers began with a meticulous preliminary analysis to ensure the robustness and validity of their findings. Employing the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy, they achieved a statistic of 0.706, surpassing the conventional threshold of 0.6. This indicated that the data collected from 80 participants were sufficiently coherent for factor analysis, bolstering the reliability of ensuing conclusions. Notably, the one-factor solution explained 26.15% of the variance, which, although below the often-cited ideal of 40%, was deemed acceptable in the context of common method bias testing.
Statistical power was carefully calculated to detect medium-sized effects with 90% certainty and a significance level of 0.05, yielding a minimum required sample size of 62 participants. This benchmark was comfortably exceeded with the study’s participant pool. Descriptive statistics documented the foundational characteristics vital for contextualizing correlations and structural model assessments. Ensuring no multicollinearity among predictors, variance inflation factors (VIFs) remained below the critical value of 5, safeguarding against inflated standard errors and distorted regression coefficients.
Explorations into the distribution of variables through skewness and kurtosis indices confirmed the data’s adequacy for parametric testing, with values constrained within recommended ranges (skewness from −3 to 3 and kurtosis from −10 to 10). This laid the groundwork for the pivotal examination of inter-variable relationships, assessed via Pearson’s correlation coefficients. The analysis highlighted that positive affect—defined as feelings such as joy, enthusiasm, and alertness—showed meaningful positive correlations with both hope and expressions of gratitude directed at a divine entity or higher power. Conversely, it was unrelated to negative affect, sexual abstinence durations, frequency of prayer, and age.
Conversely, negative affect, characterized by distressing emotional states such as anger, guilt, or sadness, displayed a negative correlation with hope and prayer. These findings support the hypothesis that spiritual practices may serve as buffers against negative emotional experiences, potentially facilitating psychological resilience. Interestingly, hope emerged as a significant node, being positively linked to sexual abstinence, gratitude, and prayer, thereby suggesting its central role as a mediator in the spirituality-emotion-behavior nexus.
Correlations also manifested between gratitude directed to God or a higher power and prayer itself, reinforcing the conceptual interdependence of these spiritual variables. Moreover, sexual abstinence correlated positively with both age and gratitude, underscoring possible maturational or experiential factors influencing behavior and spiritual gratitude. The iterative modeling process tested not only the hypothesized pathways but also supplemental direct paths from prayer to hope, affective states, and abstinence, alongside equivalent paths involving gratitude and their interaction effects, ensuring comprehensive scrutiny of the relational architecture.
The final structural equation model exhibited exemplary fit indices, with a chi-square statistic indicating nonsignificance (χ²[3] = 1.74, p = 0.626) and comparative fit indices reaching near-optimal thresholds (CFI = 1, NFI = 0.98). The root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was notably zero, emphasizing the model’s precise correspondence with the observed data. Residuals’ correlations were omitted for clarity but accounted for in model estimation. This sophisticated modeling enabled the parsing of direct, indirect, and total effects, furnishing a granular understanding of the mechanisms by which prayer and gratitude intersect with emotional health and abstinent behavior.
One particularly intriguing revelation was the emergence of a previously unanticipated direct path between gratitude to God/higher power and negative affect, establishing gratitude’s independent negative association with distressing emotional experiences. Conversely, the anticipated linkage between hope and negative affect did not achieve statistical significance, which may point to differential roles of these constructs in emotional dynamics within this clinical population. These nuanced differences illuminate the importance of discerning specific spiritual-emotional circuits rather than subsuming them under general categories.
Digging deeper, prayer was found to significantly predict gratitude toward a higher power but did not exhibit direct predictive power over hope, sexual abstinence durations, or affective states. This suggests that while prayer may nurture a sense of gratefulness, its influence on other outcome variables may be contingent upon this mediating variable. In turn, gratitude indirectly linked prayer to reductions in negative affect and to improvements in positive affect and sustained abstinence through its association with hope, highlighting a complex network of indirect influences.
Gratitude’s direct negative association with negative affect aligns with broader literature emphasizing the mental health benefits of gratitude practices, while its indirect positive effects on positive affect and abstinence via hope underscore an intertwined pathway whereby spiritual emotions engender motivational states conducive to behavioral change. Hope itself was directly associated with enhancements in positive affect and sexual abstinence but lacked a significant relationship to negative affect, emphasizing its constructive, future-oriented nature that may elevate mood and promote self-regulatory behaviors rather than merely mitigating negative emotions.
This study’s insights hold considerable implications for psychotherapeutic and recovery interventions targeting individuals with obsessive-compulsive sexual behaviors. The delineation of prayer and gratitude as pivotal spiritual variables woven into emotional well-being and behavioral control suggests the potential for integrating spiritually oriented components into comprehensive treatment plans. Such integration must be nuanced, respecting personal belief systems while harnessing the psychological benefits these spiritual constructs afford.
From a methodological standpoint, the rigorous statistical framework employed lends confidence to the findings despite the inherent complexity and potential heterogeneity of spiritual experience and psychological states. The sample, though modest in size, was sufficient according to power analyses and matched to the sophisticated structural equation modeling approach, providing robust evidence for the proposed relational pathways.
Future research might build upon these foundations by exploring longitudinal designs to ascertain causality and temporal dynamics, as well as expanding participant diversity to examine cultural or denominational variability in spiritual constructs. Moreover, incorporating qualitative insights could enrich the understanding of subjective meanings and lived experiences underpinning prayer, gratitude, and hope’s impacts.
Altogether, this comprehensive exploration reveals a multifaceted spiritual-emotional-behavioral matrix in individuals grappling with obsessive-compulsive sexual behaviors. It highlights gratitude to a higher power as a critical mediator translating prayer into psychological well-being and behavioral regulation, with hope amplifying these effects. This intricate interrelation offers pathways to novel therapeutic modalities and encourages a holistic view that honors the profound interplay between spirituality and human psychology.
Subject of Research: The relationships between prayer, emotional well-being, and sexual abstinence among individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive sexual behaviors.
Article Title: The relationships between prayer and emotional well-being as well as sexual abstinence among diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive sexual behaviors.
Article References:
Wnuk, M. The relationships between prayer and emotional well-being as well as sexual abstinence among diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive sexual behaviors. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 12, 640 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-04984-9
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