The Effect of Taizé Prayer on Stress and Stress Resilience of Young Adults in Nonclinical Settings

Stress resilience is the ability to bounce back from stress. Religious vocal chanting has been known to have a positive effect on stress. This study explored the impact of Taizé prayer as a religious vocal chanting on stress reduction and stress resilience improvement. A nonrandomized controlled trial was conducted. Thirty-six Christian university students in Indonesia were recruited and included in the intervention and control groups without randomization. Subjects in the intervention group performed 30-min Taizé prayer for 28 days. The stress level was examined using the Perceived Stress Scale, and stress resilience was examined using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-25. Differences within groups were analyzed using a paired t-test, while differences between groups were analyzed using an independent t-test. The intervention group showed a significant improvement in stress resilience (p < 0.01), while the control group did not experience any change (p = 0.80). Further, the stress scores decreased in the intervention group (p = 0.03), whereas no significant change was observed in the control group (p = 0.22). Changes in stress resilience were significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group (p = 0.01), while changes in stress scores did not differ significantly between the two groups (p = 0.33). Taizé prayer might have positive effects on stress and stress resilience in young adulthood.