Using focus groups to explore the nature of prayer in late life

The purpose of this at-ride is to present results from a series of focus gr oups that were designed to explore the nature and personal meaning of praye r in late life. Eight focus groups were conducted consisting of 63 adults a ge 65 and older. Three major themes associated with prayer emerged from the group discussions. First, study participants identified a number of belief s about how prayer operates, including beliefs about the timing and nature of answers to prayers. Second some participants felt it was important to di stinguish between group and individual prayers. In the process, they discus sed several ways in which the nature and impact of group and individual pra yers may differ. Third, participants in our focus groups helped clarify wha t initially appeared to be a rather passive approach to the use of prayer d uring difficult times.