Men, women, and religion: stress within leadership roles

Autonomous orientation predicts longevity: New findings from the Nun Study

Objective

Work on longevity has found protective social, cognitive, and emotional factors, but to date we have little understanding of the impact of motivational dynamics. Autonomy orientation, or stable patterns of self‐regulation, is theorized to be a protective factor for long‐term mental and physical health (Ryan & Deci, 2017), and it is therefore a prime candidate for examining how stable psychosocial factors are linked to longevity, or life expectancy.

Method

Essays written in the 1930s by participants in the Nun Study were coded for indicators of an autonomy orientation. These were selected in line with an extensive theoretical literature based in self‐determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Essays were coded for the propensity for choice in action, susceptibility to pressure, self‐reflection, integration of experiences, and parental support for autonomy. These coded variables were used to predict age of death.

Results

Using 176 codable essays provided by now‐deceased participants, linear regression analyses revealed that choiceful behavior, self‐reflection, and parent autonomy support predicted age of death. Participants who demonstrated these stable and beneficial motivational characteristics lived longer.

Conclusions

Personality constructs reflecting a healthy form of self‐regulation are associated with long‐term health. Implications for health interventions are discussed.

Religion and Perceived Stress among Undergraduates during Fall 2001 Final Examinations

To examine the relationship of religion and perceived stress, 97 undergraduate college students responded to the Perceived Stress Scale, the Spiritual Well-being Scale, and the Intrinsic/Extrinsic–Revised scale during a period of extreme national stressors during Fall 2001, namely, the September 11th terrorist attacks, anthrax scare, and war in Afghanistan, in addition to the local stressor of pending final college examinations. Scores on the Perceived Stress Scale were negatively correlated to scores on Existential Well-being (–.66), Religious Well-being (–.43), and Intrinsic Religious Orientation (–.44). Age was unrelated to all variables. Both the quality (well-being) of students' religious experience and the orientation of that experience were related to their perception of stress.

Stress among Clergy: An Exploratory Study on South African Anglican Priests

In a pilot study 10 male Anglican priests were interviewed individually about their roles, experiences of stress, impact of their work on family life, and problems of working for the church. Items for a questionnaire were formulated on the basis of this information. One hundred and ten usable sets of data (44% return rate) were factor analysed, resulting in three stressor scales: Person-role Conflict, Quantitative Workload and Role Insufficiency. The first two scales correlated significantly with both the Frequency and Intensity scores of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The first and third scales correlated significantly with Antonovsky's short Sense of Coherence scale. None correlated significantly with Rosenbaum's Self-control Schedule. The burnout mean could be classified as ‘moderate’.

A theoretical model of the holistic health of United Methodist clergy

Culturally competent health interventions require an understanding of the population's beliefs and the pressures they experience. Research to date on the health-related beliefs and experiences of clergy lacks a comprehensive data-driven model of clergy health. Eleven focus groups with 59 United Methodist Church (UMC) pastors and 29 UMC District Superintendents were conducted in 2008. Participants discussed their conceptualization of health and barriers to, and facilitators of, health promotion. Audiotape transcriptions were coded by two people each and analyzed using grounded theory methodology. A model of health for UMC clergy is proposed that categorizes 42 moderators of health into each of five levels drawn from the Socioecological Framework: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Congregational, United Methodist Institutional, and Civic Community. Clergy health is mediated by stress and self-care and coping practices. Implications for future research and clergy health interventions are discussed.

Coping with the stress of pastoral counseling

Using a stratified random sample of the three membership categories of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, this study investigated the experience of stress, related to the pastoral counseling profession, among 143 pastoral counselors and 95 of their spouses. In addition, the study examined how pastoral counselors were coping with stress by evaluating self-reported functional and dysfunctional behaviors. The data indicated that pastoral counselors and their spouses did not report high levels of stress related to the pastoral counseling profession. However, significant differences were found by work setting and age for pastoral counselors regarding the level of stress experienced. The data also indicated that pastoral counselors reported using more functional stress reduction behaviors than dysfunctional stress reduction behaviors.