Selah Stress Management Intervention

Learn more about the Selah Stress Management Trial

Timeline

2019 - 2022

Status: Completed

Description

Guided by data from United Methodist clergy in NC across 10 years and the most up-to-date findings in the larger stress management literature, the Selah Stress Management Intervention engaged almost 300 United Methodist clergy from across the state of North Carolina on a journey to evaluate three specific practices chosen specifically for clergy.

Despite the abundance of existing programs to reduce stress, people often don’t engage in them because they are too time-consuming, don’t fit with one’s beliefs, or don’t fit into one’s day. These particular practices were chosen specifically for clergy. The three practices were: 1) mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR); 2) the Daily Examen prayer practice; and 3) StressProofing.

Because the funding for this research coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, all of the programmatic components of the Selah Stress Management Intervention were delivered remotely. While this was not the original program design, we were grateful for the opportunity to engage clergy during a uniquely stressful period and to design and test programming that is easily scalable and low-cost. The intervention consisted of two primary components:

Instructional programming that introduced clergy to particular stress-reduction skills, and invited them into daily practice in community with a cohort of 15-20 other clergy.
A six-month behavioral health study that used surveys, biometric data, interviews, and daily reporting to rigorously determine whether or not each program made a difference for participants compared to a waitlist control group.

So, what did we find? Compared to the waitlist control group at 6 months, participants in the MBSR and Daily Examen interventions had significantly better stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms, plus higher positive mental health. (StressProofing participants did not see as strong as results.) Additionally, the Daily Examen participants reported better spiritual well-being, a hopeful outcome for those interested in evidence-based prayer interventions. However, MBSR participants were the only ones to show significantly better heart rate variability, a physiological measure of resilience.

Team

Members

Joshua Rash, Ph.D., Research Co-Director

Carl Weisner, M.A., Senior Director

Jessie Larkins, M.Ed., MDiv, Program Director

Logan Tice, M.A., Research Manager

Alyssa Platt, M.A., Lead Statistician

Jia Yao, M.A., Statistician

Beth Stringfield, Senior Project Coordinator

Leaders

Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell, Ph.D., Director and Principal Investigator

David Eagle, Ph.D., Co-Director

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