Prayer is one of the most important aspects of religious/spiritual life. The psychological literature has identified various types of prayer and a few methods for measuring it. The Multidimensional Prayer Inventory (MPI) has received much attention from researchers since it allows for the capture of the most universal forms of prayer, characteristic of the Judeo-Christian tradition: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, and Reception. The aim of this article was to examine psychometric properties and clinical applications of the Polish MPI. In four studies, we established the internal structure of the MPI using Principal Component Analysis (PCA, study 1) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA, study 2), examined its validity and reliability in relation to religiousness (study 3), and analysed its clinical application (study 4). The Polish MPI has been confirmed as a reliable and valid measure of five types of prayer for use in research settings.

Deconversion is a biographical change in which one goes from claiming adherence to a religion to departing from it. A meaning system model can help us understand the processes through which deconversion occurs. Drawing on that framework, we explored how perceiving hypocrisy in one’s religious setting influences adolescent deconversion. Irrational beliefs and identity styles of adolescents were examined as potential mediators of this relationship. In total, 369 Polish secondary school students participated in the research (65.8% female). Their mean age was 16.92 years (SD = 1.08; range = 15–19). They completed the Adolescent Deconversion Scale, Perceived Religious Hypocrisy Scale, short form of the Attitudes and Belief Scale-2, and the Identity Style Inventory. The results demonstrated that the perception of religious hypocrisy was positively related to deconversion. Moreover, the adolescents’ identity styles and propensity towards irrational beliefs partially and serially mediated the relationship between perceiving religious hypocrisy and deconverting. The results suggest that adolescents’ deconversion is related to their perception of the hypocrisy of other religious people. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.

The population of Poland could be of particular interest to researchers studying religion and spirituality. Catholicism has played a significant role in shaping the country’s culture, history, and tradition and is considered a national religion. More recently, however, the processes of moving away from regular participation in religious services and loosening ties with the institution of the Catholic Church are marked (Polish Public Opinion Research Center, CBOS). The Polish Catholic setting may modify the associations between psychological variables that have been studied in their relationships with spirituality, which have been investigated in religious contexts differing from a Polish Catholic one. Given this context, we examined the internal structure of spiritual well-being in the sample of present-day Polish Catholics (Study 1) and how spiritual well-being is related to mental health (Study 2). The internal structure of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale was replicated in the Polish sample, but only positively worded items loaded on the Religious and Existential Well-Being subscales. Spiritual well-being was positively related to positive mood, satisfaction with life, and psychological well-being; it was negatively associated with negative mood, depression, and anxiety, thus remaining significantly related to psychological well-being among Polish Catholics.

Emotions are essential in many areas of human life, including religion. Religion can arouse emotions, for example, God’s closeness can be a source of joy and gratitude, while God’s silence can cause anger or disappointment. Furthermore, and vice versa, emotions can affect how people experience or refer to God. This study investigated guilt and shame in relation to prayer and ingratiatory behavior toward God. A moderated mediation model was tested in two samples of Polish adults (Sample 1: n = 321; 53.9% female, mean age = 37.07, and Sample 2: n = 344; 57.0% female, mean age = 37.07) to examine the mediating role of prayer and moderating role of religious orientation in the relationship between guilt and shame with religious ingratiation. The Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale, Religious Ingratiation Scale, Multidimensional Prayer Inventory, and Religious Orientation Scale were used in the study. Guilt and shame positively correlated with religious ingratiation. In both samples, the guilt and shame–religious ingratiation link was mediated through adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and reception prayer among those low in intrinsic religious orientation.

This study aimed to develop a reliable and user-friendly tool, the Adolescent Perceived Secularism Scale ( APSS ), to assess adolescents’ perceptions of secularism in their peer environment. Secularization refers to the detachment of various life aspects from religious influences and Church authority. As interest in the effects of secularism on adolescents increases, so does the need for precise measurement tools. The article presents the results of 4 studies. In Study 1, we establish the internal structure of the APSS using principal component analysis. In Study 2, we confirmed the internal structure of the APSS using confirmatory factor analysis. In Study 3, we examined the validity of the APSS in relation to the results of scales measuring the centrality of religion and post-critical beliefs. In Study 4, we examined the test-retest reliability of the APSS . We discussed the psychometric properties of the APSS and its potential utility.