Demand, Support, and Perception in Family‐Related Stress Among Protestant Clergy

Abstract

Studies of clergy have emphasized the effects of stressors inherent to the profession and the impact of these on the minister's personal and family life. Hill's (1949) ABC-X model of family stress was employed to extend the focus to include three classes of variables: demands, social support, and perception. Results of questionnaires from a random sample of 312 Protestant clergy indicated that perception variables are more consistently correlated with outcome than were either demand or support.

Patterns of Stress and Support Among Adventist Clergy: Do Pastors and their Spouses Differ?

“…Alphas for the present sample ranged from 0.84 to 0.86 for both pastors and their wives. As in an earlier study using the MDI (Lee and Iverson-Gilbert 2003), frequency ratings are used to operationalize stressors/demands (A-factor), whereas the impact ratings reflect the perception/meaning dimension (C-factor) of the ABC-X model of family stress.…”

“…Since William Douglas' major study of pastors' wives in 1965, there has not been another of similar scope. Some studies address marital and family variables, but utilize only self-reports from pastors (e.g., Lee and Iverson-Gilbert 2003). Others include both pastors and spouses, but do not match spouses by couple, and generalize results without differentiating by gender (e.g., Benda and DiBlasio 1992).…”

“…Demands on one's family life can affect a pastor's attitude toward the ministry (e.g., Lee and Iverson-Gilbert 2003). In a sample of 131 United Church of Christ clergy who had left the pastorate, over one-third of the respondents cited "wife or family unhappy" as being of medium or high importance in their decision to leave (Jud et al 1970).…”

“…Some research suggests that social support (B) and perception (C) variables are more important to the overall well-being of pastors than the level of stressors (Lee and Iverson-Gilbert 2003). Not only do stressors make demands on family resources, but from the pastor's vantage point, marital and family relationships are themselves crucial sources of social support (Jud et al 1970).…”

Mental health among Norwegian priests: associations with effort–reward imbalance and overcommitment

“…These obligations have been summarized into six central roles: pastor, teacher, preacher, ritualistic leader, organizer and administrator (Carroll 2006). In addition, clergy are responsible for the church's role in the community, manage slim church budgets (Kuhne and Donaldson 1995), assist members of the congregation with mental health challenges (Wang et al 2003), and balance work demands against expectations of family and spouse (Lee and Iverson 2003;Morris and Blanton 1998).…”