Views And Opinions Of Church Attending Young People On Mental Health And Seeking Secular Help

This study has sought to consider the thoughts and feelings of young Christians aged 18-25 years old around mental illness and seeking secular help through means such as therapy and drug treatment. As society changes its attitudes to mental illness and stigmas are reduced, we are seeing the same pattern among young churchgoers who feel that to seek secular treatment is acceptable, while using faith-based methods such as prayer and seeking advice from leaders within the church. They also tend to see environmental and biological factors as causes of mental illness, although some also see faith as a factor. We can suggest that these changes in attitude have come about as a result of increased social media awareness around the subject of mental illness and better education in schools which mirrors that of the changing attitude in secular society. This study challenges a stigma often associated with Christians that they are unsympathetic towards mental illness as we see attitudes change across generations in the church as we do in society itself.

Introduction

This illness of the mind is responsible for the scrambled senses of the ill person, not the scri ptures themselves Harman wrote in 1994 to the editor of Journal of Psychosocial Nursing Mental Health Services. In this, he was referencing to the idea that health professionals had seen the deterioration of religious patients with mental health issues and had irrational thoughts around things they had read in the Bible. There has been a lot of stigma around mental health problems, particularly prevalent ones in society such as depression and anxiety (McNutt, 2004). Christians have often been negatively associated with those suffering from mental health illnesses, with exorcisms being performed by some of the more extreme churches (Last, 2015). The topic views and opinions of church attending young Christians towards mental health and seeking secular help looks to see if there is still a stigma within church teaching about mental health. Young Christians are now living in a society where mental health is talked about more and awareness is promoted. This research will begin to show how young Christians think and talk about mental health and whether secular help is acceptable to them. It is relevant in a society where mental illness is more prevalent and more awareness is being raised around it. Church leaders are often trusted with many issues, and mental health issues is a topic that young Christians feel they can talk to about with their spiritual leaders. This research will consider how young Christians think and talk about mental illness, how they believe it can be treated and how they feel about seeking secular help. The research challenges a stereotype that churches are traditional in their feelings towards mental illness and uncovers the help that is available from church leaders and support available among Christians. It will challenge people s perceptions of how young Christians think and talk about mental illness and uncover their acceptance of using secular forms of treatment. This will be considered in the light of research that has already been carried out and will compare and contrast different findings from studies.

Statement of Research

The research questions put forward by the researcher are as follows.

How do young Christians think and talk about mental illness?

How do young Christians talk about how mental illness can be treated?

How do young Christians feel about seeking help from medication or therapy?

Literature Review

The first influence for this research study was the dissertation undertaken by Plunkett (2009). This study considered the attitudes of black American churchgoers toward mental health help seeking attitudes and the personalities the participants looked for in a counsellor. Plunkett found that mental health seeking attitudes did not depend on a counsellor having a similar religion and that the same proportion of people found help from traditional routes as those searching among the clergy. However, there was also a large group who had not sought help from either a traditional method or the clergy due to embarrassment and the stigma around mental health, which influenced the interest around taboo s within the church associated with mental illness. This research informed the research questions of this study, although the demographic is vastly different and interviews young people from a range of denominations in the UK. The results of the study are likely to be different to that of Plunkett s as the focus is on young people from any denomination whereas Plunkett s research focuses on black American church-goers.

In order to understand mental health and the therapy that is available, the researcher looked into both of these subjects in order to receive a basic understanding. Corey (2000) writes an overview of this in his book wherein the researcher began to understand the technical differences between common types of counselling such as Person-Centred Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy which are both readily available to those experiencing mental health problems. The main differences between different mental health issues is also highlighted and which therapy they may be best suited to each issue. Barry and Yuill (2008) talk about mental health in their book and they remind us that mental health is not something that can be seen so doctors must rely on what the patient is telling them. Broadly speaking, there are two explanations for mental health illnesses biological and social. Mental health is far more complex than saying A leads to B which leads to C, as is the case with physical illnesses. This chapter has helped the researcher to understand the causes for mental health and how biology and social factors can influence the human brain. This argues that mental health issues are similar in their causes to other physical illnesses, rather than having supernatural causes which is a question this research considers in the context of what Christian s believe the causes of mental health problems to be.

A basis of the knowledge of religion was obtained from Furseth and Repstad (2016). They explore the reasons that an individual may be religious in contemporary society, these being the deprivation theory, socialization theory, rational choice theory and a search for meaning or belonging. In the context of this research, deprivation theory is most suited to be explored further. Furseth and Repstad explore this theory, first put together by Glock (1965). In a society where there is deprivation, both relative and absolute, individuals seek alternative goals that can compensate for what a person may be lacking. They give the example of a disabled person having religion to give them the hope for a new body in the afterlife and also the care of other believers. This can be adapted to mental illness where this is the result of grievance for example, the individual is given a new hope or faith which can be a compensation for what they are lacking. This has been theorised to help with a mental illness and this is something that this research explores in the context of how young Christians may feel that mental illness can be treated.

Furthermore, Giddens discusses the issues relating to trust in The Consequences of Modernity (1990) which looks into how we live with trust-based systems in a modern world. We have trust in people from our early life and these intimate relationships build on response and involvement. Trust in abstract systems continue to give us security in day to day life but does not have the same intimacy as personal relations. This is where, Giddens explains, that religion is very different in that traditionally they have personalised figures to who there is a transfer of individual trust which contrasts with modern abstract systems which presumes faith in impersonal principles. This explains to us why we still have traditional religion in modern society, as it provides some personal, intimate trust-based system in an impersonal world. This informed the researcher on how young Christians may feel that religion gives them some stability in tackling a mental illness and can be considered in the light of the responses given.

There has been previous research to try to understand Christian s views on mental health, and particularly its origins and whether or not to consider it as having natural or supernatural causes. Ryan (2017) wrote a paper that was helpful in forming an understanding of Christian s views around mental health by interviewing Christians on mental health. One interviewee described how there is a danger of over-spiritualising mental health issues, as well as any medical problems as a spiritual case. They concluded that if the church treats mental health as a demonic issue, there is the risk of doing very serious harm. The think-tank has also done research on how good religion is for well-being and found that there was a positive correlation but there was also evidence of variation. The church and its practices can be seen as a form of mental health counselling, as well as giving an opportunity to build relationships with people such as the idea of praying for each other and having members of the clergy to talk to. Ryan s research has been helpful in guiding the researcher s approach to this research. It has helped the researcher to form my questions around the possibility of over-spiritualising mental health issues and its treatment and formulate the research questions to compare how Christians in Ryan s study thought about mental illness and it s treatment to the views found in this research. Furthermore, Harman in a published letter to the editor of the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services (1994) emphasises the danger of looking to religion or supernatural causes of mental illness. He writes that many health professionals have seen patients deteriorate because their religious beliefs have become irrational and negative and made their delusions worse.

Leavey, Loewenthal and King (2016) also consider the social causes of mental health issues by interviewing religious leaders of various faiths from the UK. They interviewed what seems to be some very forward-thinking ministers and religious leaders and many explanations for mental health illnesses by them were seen to be natural or emotional such as stress or life changes, and even structural. This would really demonstrate that they do not consider mental health problems to be so much of a supernatural intervention in a person s life. It has made the researcher consider that religious ministers may offer support in mental health crises, but also highlight the importance of seeking professional help. Wood, Watson and Hayter (2011) found that 82% of clergy had referred to a GP when advising an individual on at least one occasion. This would make us consider how the religious community and healthcare community may be able to join forces in addressing mental health and highlighting issues related to it. Similarly to this research, Wood et al s research was one of a kind in the UK, as such research had only been carried out in the United States in highly religious areas, compared to the more secular towns of the UK. We could suggest that although Wood et al interviewed a religious sample, their everyday lives were not surrounded by people of a similar faith, as would be more likely in the more religious areas of the US. Therefore, although Wood et al also found that minsters wanted to collaborate with mental health services and professionals, there was a lack of training and education for ministers on mental health issues and acceptance by the medical community of collaboration with churches. The research also led to the interview question of whether or not mental health issues are talked about in the church or if it is a taboo. Furthermore, Wood et al was conscious of minsters using a spiritual model of mental illness rather than a medical model, which could lead to misdiagnosis or not seeking medical care when it is needed, due to some minsters claiming demon possession by those experiencing mental health issues. This has influenced the interview questions to consider how much ministers discuss mental health among their congregation and whether or not it is a taboo subject in the church. It also helped to formulate the research question of how young Christians believe mental illness can be treated, as these ministers saw secular help as being acceptable.

For many Christians, prayer is seen as a form of mental health therapy and faith is important in tackling these problems. To tackle mental health issues in a religious sense, Black, Poessel, Jeppsen, Bjerg and Woolridge (2014) explored the effect of prayer. This is commonly associated with positive changes to mental health, however, the mechanisms as to why has not been identified. People are able to self-disclose their feelings to a higher being, whereas those who are not religious do not necessarily have that opportunity. Black et al also quote Koenig s (2007) research who found that inpatients who prayed more had lower levels of clinical depression. However, they also quote research that has found the opposite, such as Flannelly et al (2008) who found that the frequency of prayer was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. However, the idea of talking about worries and issues related to depression to a higher being is a common theme among Christians as a positive way of dealing with mental health issues. Black et al found in their research that there was a lack ofassociation between prayer and more positive mental health, as it only moderated the effect of stress on only anxiety and not any other forms of negative mental health. Prayer frequency lowered the effect of stress on anxiety when there were low levels of stress, but there was not an overall experience of more positive mental health due to prayer frequency from the study. This would suggest that prayer may not be an effective form of therapy for mental health issues, particularly without other therapy or medication, although various research has drawn differing conclusions. The interview schedule has questions that have been informed by this research to understand if Christians believe that prayer is the best way forward for tackling mental health issues and if they believe that this alone can deal with mental health problems.

An aspect that this research also explores is how faith can be incorporated into therapy, such as through the use of prayer and Christian counselling services. Pearce and Koenig (2012) explored the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in Christian patients suffering from depression due to a medical illness. Studies have shown that integrating beliefs into therapy is more effective in reducing depression than secular treatment. As the Christian s worldview is based on the Bible, Pearce and Koenig suggest that Christian CBT, which uses CBT principles but in a Christian context and applied to a Christian s worldview, is most effective to Christian patients who may use scri ptures in an appropriate, contextual and thoughtful manner, so to adapt their worldview to once again be rational and to identify and replace unhelpful thoughts. The research carried out by Pearce and Koenig showed that religious involvement in therapy is associated with positive emotions and faster recovery from symptoms of depression. They also found that many individuals who identify with a faith have a preference for treatment that integrates their religious faith, which influenced the question in the interview schedule concerning whether or not Christian counselling should be available on the NHS.

To summarise, the researcher has found that there are broad variations between the perspectives of Christians on mental illness. This is what can be expected from this research, especially as there are broad differences between denominations in their beliefs. As we saw in previous literature, prayer has been found to help some Christians as a coping mechanism, as Black et al concluded, but it needed to be alongside other treatment. Among ministers, there is a want for more interaction between the church and mental health services, as Wood et al stated, but this may not be possible as the UK moves to be a more secular society. The research used does not focus on young people, but people of the general population, but it forms an understanding that young people may believe that mental health treatment involves both spiritual and medical treatment as outlined by the question do church attending young people view mental health problems as needing spiritual or medical treatment? . This is highlighted by the ministers in Wood et al s research who would feel that cooperation between the church and mental health services would be beneficial to their congregation.

Methodology

Approach and design

The researcher took a qualitative, interpretivist approach to this piece of research. This was in order to explore the reasons behind the thoughts of the participants around Christianity and mental health. The approach was used after considering the differences between a positivist approach and an interpretivist approach, as outlined by Bryman (2016). The research questions supported this approach to the research, being mindful of how young Christians talked and thought about mental illness, how they talked about treatment and its different forms and their thoughts and feeling around secular help. The epistemological approach influenced the exploratory approach to the research analysis, as influenced by Plunkett (2009), who also looked for patterns of meaning and various themes from his participants. The researcher also remained subjective in this research, and as the research method was an interview, it was difficult not to have some influence over the answers given by the participants, as the researcher explored the thoughts and feelings of the participants. The ontological position of the research was constructionism, as the participants responses would have been influenced by their experiences. The researcher was also influenced by their own experiences and their own experience of the world which are constructions that are in a constant state of change (Bryman, 2016).

Participants were recruited through opportunity sampling and their responses were analysed by thematic analysis. The participant recruitment was also influenced by the ontological and epistemological approaches that the researcher took. The participants had to be Christians who attended church regularly, so that their experiences of the Christian faith had an influence on their responses. The epistemological approach influenced the form of data analysis the researcher used. Using thematic analysis, the researcher considered common themes throughout the data and understand the meaning behind their responses, considering Weber s notion of verstehen (Bryman, 2016).

Participants/recruitment

Participants were recruited on the basis of their age and the amount of times they attended church. All participants needed to be between the ages of 18-30 and had to attend church at least twice a month. This was confirmed at the beginning of the interview. The researcher needed a gender balance in the sample and was successful in interviewing 4 people who identified as male and 4 who identified as female. The researcher used opportunity sampling and advertised the research through the University s Christian un ion and asked for the permission of the committee before doing so. Table 1 provides a short biography of each participant, using the pseudonym that the researcher gave each participant and describes the denomination each participant identified as. Due to being students and attending one church at home and another at university, some participants identified with more than one denomination, while others attended churches that have no particular denomination.

Table 1

Summary of Participants

Name

Age

Gender

Denomination

Daniel

26

Male

The Brethren

Jake

20

Male

Church of England and Baptist

Abigail

20

Female

Baptist

Samuel

19

Male

Baptist and Pentecostal

Matthew

21

Male

Catholic

Rachel

19

Female

Church of England

Emily

22

Female

Baptist

Olivia

30

Female

Non-denominational

Data collection

The data was collected using the same process with each participant. Each interview was conducted at the University of Suffolk in a private room. Only the researcher and the participant were present to ensure anonymity. Before the interview, the researcher explained the interview process and the research focus to the participant. The participant was then given a Participant Information Sheet and a consent form to sign (see Appendix 2, page 71). Once this was completed, and the participant understood that they could withdraw from the study at any time, the interview began. It was recorded on the researcher s phone, which was pass word protected, and each interview lasted between ten and fifteen minutes. The interview followed an interview schedule (see Appendix 3, page 77) but as the researcher was using a semi-structured interview research style, some further questions were also asked. The questions asked by the researcher were based around the research questions and were used to explore the way that young Christians talked and thought about mental illness and its treatment, but not about their own experiences due to this being an ethical issue. At the end of the interview, the participant was given a debrief sheet including information of services available to them for support if they experienced any difficulties due to the interview. The interviews were later transcribed and organised using the pseudonym assigned to each interview to be analysed. See the interviews in Appendix 1, page 37. A pilot study was conducted prior to the interviews in line with Bryman s recommendations (2016) in order to ensure that the prompt questions were suitable, the time was appropriate, and the participant felt comfortable answering the questions. Glock (1988) as cited by Bryman expresses that the usefulness of conducting a pilot study, as it gives the researcher an idea of what might need to change and for the participant to express any concerns they may have had with the study. The participant felt that there were no changes that needed to be made, so the research could continue.

Data analysis

The researcher used thematic analysis in order to analyse the data in the transcri pts. This method was appropriate in order to understand the common themes between different Christians views and to use these to answer the research questions. The analysis was exploratory in its approach as it sought to understand the links in between different themes and answers. To begin with, the interview recordings were each transcribed. They were then coded, and each code was assigned into a theme (see Appendix 4, page 78) which were used to answer the research questions and explore the deeper meanings behind each participant s answer. No software was used in this analysis.

Ethics

As the study considered issues around mental illness and personal faith, the researcher had to consider the various ethical implications of the study. Therefore, the researcher ensured that the questions asked considered the views and opinions of participants rather than their experiences. At points in the interviews, some participants began to bring in their own experience. Although the researcher did not stop this from happening, they asked the participant if they were still comfortable talking about their experience and reminded them that they were under no obligation to continue in the interview. This was something that participants were reminded about throughout their participation so that they were clear that their participation was voluntary. The Participant Information Sheet, Consent Form and Debrief Sheet (see Appendix 2, page 71) gave participants all the information about the study, including the reasons for the study, what the researchers wanted to understand and what the participants role was within it. The participants were also given copies of this information. In an event of distress caused by the interview, the participant would be directed to the University Student Services, charities such as the Samaritans and the University Chaplaincy Team. The researcher believed the University Chaplaincy Team to be an appropriate service to include due to the faith issues that would be discussed in the interview.

During the interview, there was no mention to participants personal details, except their age, the gender they defined as, and the denomination that they identified with. To keep anonymity, the researcher assigned each participant a pseudonym and each participant was aware of how their information would be stored. Their information was stored on a pass word protected laptop and did not include any personal details, except their age, the gender they defined as, and the denomination that they identified with.

Prior to undertaking the research, the researcher presented a proposal for the research to the Ethics Board, which was approved with recommendations.

Reflexivity

When collecting, analysing and interpreting the data, the researcher was not able to remain objective, due to their own values. Being a Christian themselves, there were some phrases or anecdotes that they were able to understand better than another researcher who was not a Christian, such as understanding the references to The Fall or Elijah (see Appendix 1 page 42). This was beneficial to the interpretation of the data. Due to the researcher being a Christian themselves, prior to the study, participants asked questions about how the researcher chose the topic and knowing that the researcher was a Christian, used such words and phrases in the interviews with the assumption that the researcher would understand these. The participants also knew that the research was on the subject of young Christians views of mental health and so their responses to questions such as what do you think causes mental illness incorporated more indications of faith issues than they may have with a secular researcher. This was positive as the researcher could then understand the true meanings behind their answers, but it was also possible that the researcher influenced the answers given by participants.

Findings

The researcher used a thematic analysis approach to the data and compiled a list of themes shown below. A more comprehensive set of data showing the themes with their relative codes can be found in Appendix 4, page 78. Rather than using a Network View to show this data, the researcher felt a table associated with each code would be more appropriate for the research.

List of themes:

Definition of a mental illness

Environmental factors of mental illness

Biological factors of mental illness

Faith factors of mental illness

Mental illness in relation to physical illness

Prevalence of mental illness

Not a punishment from God

God speaking through illness

Taboo s in the church

Drug treatment

Support from other Christians in the church

Therapy and counselling treatment

Prayer as therapy

Thoughts on secular treatment and health professionals

Church leader s responsibility

Christian therapy on the NHS

Definition of a mental illness

This theme considered what the interviewees defined as a mental illness. The researcher found that all the participants had similar ideas of this definition and considered it as something that affected a person s day to day life.

If you struggle to cope with everyday living and routine activities in their lives Olivia

A problem is when it stops you from functioning on a daily basis Abigail

These responses showed how young Christians initially viewed mental illness and these showed a general understanding of the effect it can have in a person s life, albeit from a lay point of view. There was an understanding that there are different levels of severity to mental illness as Daniel showed

I think there are different forms of mental health and I think there are some that are very genuine and very real and very erm but I think there are some as well which are easy to manage if that makes sense

The way that these young Christians thought and spoke about mental illness was not different from those of other beliefs or none at all and did not incorporate any religious ideas, showing that young Christians view mental illness as a real issue in people s lives and that it is not something that is non-existent or can be ignored.

Environmental factors of mental illness, biological factors of mental illness, and faith factors of mental illness

These three themes have been grouped together as the researcher found that they linked together greatly in the interviews. The researcher explored what participants considered to be the cause of mental illness. Most participants listed various reasons, often spanning across all three themes. The environmental factors of mental illness were often seen as the use of social media in society and the pressure that it comes with.

I think the pressure of social media I think what you see .girls who dress themselves up and whatever it s a lot of pressure

There were also other causes of environmental pressures discussed. At the time that the interviews were taking place, it was the general election, and one participant highlighted politics as an example of pressure that might contribute to negative mental health.

Stress and pressure of life to be honest just living and the world we live in there is always something negative going on and we ve got all this stress of politics

Another common environmental factor that was mentioned was around trauma and experiences that people have had as a cause for mental illness. Samuel pointed out that there could be any degree of trauma that had not been dealt with properly as a cause of mental illness.

Biological factors were also considered to have an impact on mental health, with reference made to genetic pre-dispositions to mental illness and chemical imbalances . This shows the young Christians willingness to consider scientific facts in relation to mental illness. Three of the participants made reference to their training and jobs within the healthcare sector one training to be a nurse, another as a paramedic and one as a midwife. Their exposure to more serious mental illnesses is likely to have an impact on how they speak and think about mental illnesses and the causes, possibly causing them to think more scientifically about mental illness rather than allowing faith causes to be considered.

Finally, faith factors are also referenced to in relation to the causes of mental illness. These are made alongside biological and environmental factors such as

it can be like stress it can be like workload it could also be like faith-wise like if you re not listening to God and his voice

As the participants knew that the study was around Christian perspectives of mental illness, the researcher cannot be sure that the participants made reference to these because they wanted to answer the questions with faith factors this in context. However, participants were divided on the idea that those who were not Christians may experience mental illness due to faith factors. For example, Jake suggested that people of no faith may feel pressure around times such as Christmas when religious festivals are celebrated, whereas Abigail felt that those of no faith would not listen to God s voice due to not believing in a God. However, as Ryan (2017) found in his study, it is a danger to consider mental illnesses as having faith as a cause, so we may conclude that Christians are divided on the topic of the causes of mental illness. These responses also contrast with the study by Leavey et al (2016) where ministers considered the social causes of mental illness, thus showing that there may be differences in the causes of mental illness among denominations. Some participants did not feel that faith would impact on mental health, but instead, participating in faith-based activities such as attending church would have a positive effect.

sometimes if like I go to church and I ve heard like a really inspiring sermon it s like wow I m feeling really good I m feeling really positive mentally

Rachel s thoughts on the how church can have a positive effect on mental health shows that some young Christians feel that church is a form of escapism and can contrast with stress, and so can be used in a therapeutic manner.

Prevalence of mental illness

It is widely suggested in society that the prevelence of mental illness in society has increased in recent years. ONS data reports that the amount of people experiencing high levels of anxiety increased by 1.7% between November 2018 and November 2019 (ONS, 2019), with over one million using NHS services in February 2020 (NHS Digital, 2020). The researcher wanted to understand why the young Christians thought that this had happened. The feeling among them was that social media played a big part in this with some participants suggesting that everybody shares everything and this puts more pressure on people. Others also commented that societies values had changed over the years and people were more open to talk and support those with mental illnesses.

there has been a huge shift and I think people are definitely more open

The researcher also wanted to understand how much of a taboo is within the church around mental illness and what the feelings were of different generations in the church towards mental illness. The responses varied depending on the church that was attended some had a majority of young people and others were more traditional. Daniel spoke about two different church experiences that he had.

Pastors and preachers are seen as leaders within the church community and can use their position to influence the Christians within their congregation. Therefore, there was a feeling among participants that church leaders had a responsibility towards the mental health of their congregation. To begin with, participants highlighted that pastors are able to raise awareness of mental illness within their sermons and offer encouragement within those. Jake offered a different point of view, suggesting that mental illness should not take a whole sermon or be a centre-point but that church leaders should be available for members of the church to talk to. He highlighted that there should not be a pressure within this, but for the door to be open but we re not going to push you through it . Many of the participants suggested that pastors and church leaders should be available to speak to, but this would depend on a person s relationship with the church. Emily mentioned that a Christian would relate to a church leader more. Other participants mentioned the importance of pastors having wisdom and natural empathy, though Olivia highlighted the importance of church leaders not offering counselling treatment if they were not qualified. These interactions showed the researcher that young Christians are open to seek advice from their church leaders on mental illness, but most did not mention seeking professional counselling from them. The overall thoughts among the participants were that pastors and church leaders have a responsibility to lead and guide their congregation. Wood et al (2011) had found that many members of the clergy had directed members of their congregation to GP services, suggesting that church leaders encourage the use of secular services rather than their own.

The researcher separated treatment into three different areas drug treatment, therapy and prayer. The researcher looked to understand how Christians thought about these treatments and which they felt were effective forms of treatment for mental illness.

Drug treatment was seen by all the participants to be an acceptable form of treatment, though there were concerns from some participants over prolonged use leading to addiction. Others also felt that it should be a last resort, but Emily was keen to emphasise that medication can be more effective when the cause of mental illness is a chemical imbalance on the brain. Samuel mentioned that God may use various ways, including medication to heal a person of a mental illness. Olivia also thought that medication along with support from the church and therapy could be an effective form of treatment. This shows that young Christians are open to the use of medication, provided it is used in the right way.

Young Christians also felt that therapy was an effective way to treat mental illness. They felt that it was valuable and Jake pointed out that provided it was safe and useful, then it should be used. These feelings were shared among the participants. However, Matthew felt that a person should speak to their closer relations before seeking therapy, which might suggest that some Christians feel that it is better to seek help from areas of faith prior to seeking secular help.

The researcher also questioned whether or not prayer was viewed by Christians to be an effective form of therapy. All the participants felt that it was good for a Christian to pray in times of trouble. Jake felt that it was it kind of acts like it s own talking therapy .so you re thinking how can I out this into words . They felt that it ordered their thoughts in their mind, and that they would recommend it to other Christians, but not necessarily to people who were not Christians. Rachel felt that if they aren t a Christian then they don t fully understand how prayer works. Emily felt that she would recommend prayer for anything, but it should not replace secular help, which agrees in some ways with Black et al (2014) and Flanelly et al s (2008) research who did not find any benefit of prayer on mental illness, suggesting that Christians should not use prayer as their only form of therapy, but rather as a coping mechanism. There was a variety of responses to the effectiveness of prayer in relation to mental illness. Daniel and Abigail mentioned how they felt that other Christians praying for a person struggling with mental illness would be effective, especially when the person struggling does not feel like praying. This shows that young Christians understand how mental illness can affect someone s faith and that they feel that other Christians can help with this. Overall, young Christians felt that mental illness can be helped by prayer and the church, but that secular forms of treatment must also be used.

The researcher finally wanted to understand how young Christians felt about secular help and the use of health professional services. Many participants felt that a person should seek help from a health professional quickly after experiencing symptoms.

Discussion and Conclusion

The study s methodological design may have benefitted from expanding into further subcategories in the analysis for greater interpretation such as considering the types of environmental issues that may affect a person s mental health and considered further the effect of prayer on mental illness. However, the use of a semi-structured interview allowed the researcher to ask follow up questions to the participants and clarify various points.

My learning and research skills have been given the opportunity to develop over the time of carrying out this research project. I formulated my research questions based on the areas of treatment for mental illness that I wanted to explore the most. The questions were informed by previous studies explored in my Literature Review which evaluated the research methods used in other studies. Many of these had used interviews in order to explore and interpret the reasons behind Christian s thoughts on aspects such as prayer and mental illness, so this formed a basis for my own research method of semi-structured interviews. I used thematic analysis in order to analyse my data which I felt worked well to link areas of participants interviews with one another and across different interviews, especially as different areas related to each other and answered different aspects of the research questions. I feel that I have met the learning outcomes, but that some of my analysis could have been in more depth as well as evaluating my methods and outcomes to a greater extent. My analysis supported my learning the most as this was a new method that I used and had to learn as I went along. I had chosen not to use any software as I did not feel that I would be very successful with it, and thematic analysis allowed me to search for more meaning and links between the participants responses.

The easiest area of the research project was carrying out the interviews. I felt that with each interview, I developed my skills and with this, each interview became more valuable to my study. The pilot study allowed me to see where my skills were lacking and develop the prompt questions further and understand from the participant how I could improve. The most difficult area of the study was the analysis, as I used a new method, but this is also where I developed my learning the most. The study has helped me to analyse materials for other modules when I am writing assignments to look more closely into the meaning behind studies to write more evidence-based analysis. The study has also developed my study skills such as time management over a long period of time as I had to plan my time over a year and set deadlines as to the various areas that had to be completed.

The experience of research methods has given me the ability to think more carefully when presented with primary research and to look more closely into the meanings behind participants responses. This has developed over the past three years of research methods study and I have been able to see the benefits of both qualitative and quantitative data for research. However, I find myself now more in favour of qualitative research methods as I enjoy finding the deeper meaning behind a response and questioning why to many responses. I really enjoyed the project and feel ready to explore the area of religion and mental health further, and perhaps consider differences in views around mental illness between different religions and faiths. This resource was uploaded by: Sarah