Partner-focused prayer and relationship satisfaction: Does religiosity matter?

In romantic relationships, there is a documented association between partner-focused prayer and relationship satisfaction.However, the heterogeneity in effect sizes across studies suggests the association is more nuanced than has been assumed and points to the presence of potential moderating variables.As people differ in their involvement in religious beliefs and behaviors, the present study examines whether individual differences in religiosity might moderate the association between partner-focused prayer and relationship satisfaction.Online data were collected from two different samples of young adults (N = 179 and N = 237) attending a public U.S. university.An interaction between partner-focused prayer and religiosity emerged in predicting relationship satisfaction.This moderating effect showed that there was a stronger association between partner-focused prayer and relationship satisfaction in participants higher in religiosity than among their less religious counterparts.The reason for this moderating effect is discussed before outlining the limitations of the study.