Job Stress And Strain In The Parish Ministry.

This dissertation examined the relationships between various stressors and strains in the parish ministry. The extent to which certain properties of the person and of the situation moderated this relationship was also examined. Various forms of subjective role stress were investigated including role conflict, administrative demands, job-family conflict. Actual clergy-laity differences pertaining to (1) theological beliefs, (2) role priorities, and (3) preferred ministerial leadership style, were also examined as predictors of strain. Measures of psychological strain included job dissatisfaction, reactive depression, and job-related anxiety and irritation. Measures of behavioral strain were also obtained. The moderator variables included social support and Type-A personality. The sample was drawn from a local district of the United Methodist Church. An effort was made to include each minister and his/her Pastor-Parish Relations Committee (P-PRC) in the study sample. The final study sample included 49 ministers (from 49 churches), a 73 percent response rate. A total of 243 P-PRC members representing 46 churches also participated. The ministers and P-PRC members were asked to complete mail questionnaires. The subjective measures of role stress were significantly associated with different measures of psychological strain, and with a measure of behavior-related strain. Using multiple regression techniques, aggregate measures of role stress were found to account for substantial proportions of variance in psychological strain. In general, the sources of stress based on actual clergy-laity differences were found to be less consequential. While perceived social support from work and non-work sources had substantial negative main effects on the perception of stress, high scores on the measure of type-A personality was significantly associated with higher levels of perceived stress. Perceived support also buffered the impact of stress on psychological strain, but type-A personality did not seem to be of consequence in relation to psychological strain. On the basis of the research findings several recommendations for reducing stress in the ministry were suggested and recommendations for improving future research in this area were made.Ph.D.Clinical psychologyPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127688/2/8502945.pd