comparative study on the effect of prayer and praise on peace of mind and physical health from male and female students’ points of view in gonabad’s guidance schools in 1390

background one of human’s psychological needs is to have a transcendent relationship with an omnipotent and superior force. prayer and praise is one of the manifestations of human relationship with the lord of the universe. objectives the study aims to comparatively examine the effect of prayer and praise on peace of mind and physical health from male and female students’ points of view in gonabad’s guidance schools in 1390. materials and methods this is a descriptive-analytical study based on cross-sectional design. the research was conducted in the fall of 1390 (2011). the population of the study consisted of 70 students from two guidance schools in gonabad including sama nonprofit- making school for girls and hasheminejad school for boys which is a kind of “elite schools. after gathering the data, they were analyzed using spss-16 software and then inserted into the descriptive and analytical tables. results the results indicate that there is a significant relationship between the students’ familiarity with prayer and praise and their faith in its effects. there is a significant relationship between girls and boys in their familiarity with prayer and praise so that girls’ familiarity with prayer and praise is more than that of boys (p = 0/025). conclusions living with prayer and praise is itself an islamic life-style. the students under the study had high level of understanding of prayer and praise and strong belief in its effects on calmness, soothing, healing and treating diseases.