The Impact of Scripture Prayer on the Emotional Adjustment of Children

Numerous books have been written and testimonies shared about the power of prayer as a factor of change in individuals. Dr. Steele examines the impact of consistent Scripture-based prayer on the emotional health of children. The prevailing theoretical models of emotional health of children typically assert that primarily the circumstances in a child's life will predict the level of his or her emotional health. Numerous circumstances have been identified in the past, such as the family stress factors and socioeconomic status. An implicit assumption of these models might conclude that children today have little hope outside of "chance" to avoid the negative impact of this "age of anxiety," and to keep from becoming 1 of every 10 adolescents who suffers from some type of emotional illness. Most of these theoretical models would not consider prayer by parents to be a factor in the emotional health of a child. However, Dr. Steele's findings in this study imply consistent Scripture-based prayer (as taught by the Moms in Touch International groups) can be an important factor in the emotional health of a child.