June 2005 Article Abstracts Vol. 46 Issue 4

FRIENDSHIP TIES IN THE CHURCH AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS: EXPLORING VARIATIONS BY AGE

Neal Krause
Keith M. Wulff

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between having close friends in church and depressive symptoms. Three hypotheses are evaluated. The first specifies that older adults are more likely than younger people to have a greater proportion of friends in the place where they worship. The second specifies that having more friends at church will be associated with fewer symptoms of depression. The third hypothesis predicts that the impact of friends at church will become progressively stronger in successively older age groups. Data from a nationwide survey reveal that older adults do not have more friends at church than younger people. However, the findings further indicate that having friends at church tends to reduce depressive symptomatology, but only among older people.

RELIGION, STRESS, AND MENTAL HEALTH IN ADOLESCENCE:
FINDINGS FROM ADD HEALTH

Jennifer G. Nooney

A growing body of multidisciplinary research documents associations between religious involvement and mental health outcomes, yet the causal mechanisms linking them are not well understood. Ellison and his colleagues (2001) tested a series of hypotheses derived from the life stress paradigm which linked religious involvement to adult well-being and distress. In the present study those proposed mechanisms are tested in a population of adolescents, a particularly understudied group in religious research. Analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) reveals that religious involvement works to prevent the occurrence of school and health stressors, which reduces depression. For suicide ideation, religious involvement works to mobilize social resources. Implications for theory and research are discussed.

RELIGIOSITY AND DISPOSITIONAL FORGIVENESS

Marcia Webb
Sarah. A Chickering
Trina A. Colburn
Dawn Heisler
Steve Call

The present study focused upon the capacity for forgiveness and religious faith. Two hundred and eighty participants from a public community college and a private Christian university completed questionnaires measuring the dispositional tendency to forgive, and several variables associated with religiosity, including motivation for religious activity, personal concept of God and religious problem-solving style. Results indicated that dispositional forgiveness was positively correlated with intrinsic motivation. Forgiveness was also positively correlated with loving God concepts, and with religious problem-solving styles involving either a partnership with God or deference to God. Alternatively, the dispositional tendency for forgiveness was negatively correlated with controlling God concepts and with problem-solving styles not incorporating faith. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that each of the religious variables contributed uniquely to total scores of forgiveness. Results of the study are discussed in light of their implications for the multifaceted and complex nature of both religiosity and forgiveness.

SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE AND IDENTITY:
RELATIONSHIPS WITH RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION, RELIGIOUS INTEREST, AND INTOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY

P.J. Watson
Ronald J. Morris

Spiritual Openness and Spiritual Support subscales of the Spiritual Experience Index were administered to 402 undergraduates along with the Identity Style Inventory, the Intolerance of Ambiguity Scale, and measures of religious interest and religious orientation. Spiritual Openness was associated with lower levels of Identity Commitment, a Normative Identity Style, Intolerance of Ambiguity, an Intrinsic Religious Orientation, and religious interest, and also with higher levels of Quest, a Diffuse/Avoidant Identity Style, and an Extrinsic Orientation. Spiritual Support was associated with higher levels of Identity Commitment, both the Informational and the Normative Identity Styles, religious interest, and Intolerance of Ambiguity and with lower levels of Quest and a Diffuse/Avoidant Style. These data once again illustrated the challenges associated with efforts to understand religious maturity in that both Spiritual Openness and Spiritual Support predicted psychological weakness as well as strengths.

FACTORS LEADING TO CLERGY JOB SEARCH
IN TWO PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS

Tina Wildhagen
Charles W. Mueller
Minglu Wang

People often assume that clergy make job-related decisions based primarily on spiritual criteria, such as a “calling.” In this paper, we challenge this sort of belief by examining clergy job search behavior from a sociology of work perspective. Using data from a 1996 national survey of parish clergy in two Protestant denominations, we build a job search model that identifies the factors that motivate ministers to search for positions with other congregations. The results indicate that push factors, like key job characteristics and community involvement, and human capital factors (skills and experience) affect ministers’ job search propensity. Pull factors, or the availability of positions at other churches, have no apparent effect on search propensity. In addition, calling appears to have little effect on a minister’s decision to search for positions with other congregations. We conclude that, contrary to stereotypical views of them as guided primarily by faith-based concerns, ministers consider many of the same factors as do other employees when deciding whether to search for new jobs.

FOR WHAT SHOULD THEOLOGICAL COLLEGES EDUCATE?
A SYSTEMATIC INVESTIGATION OF MINISTRY EDUCATION PERCEPTIONS AND PRIORITIES

Martin Dowson
Dennis M. McInerney

The present study sought to investigate the perceptions of 300 ministers, 85 recent graduates from theological colleges, and 954 church members regarding (a) the effectiveness of ministry education, (b) priorities for ministry education, and (c) the acquired competencies of ministers. Participants were surveyed using the Inventory of Ministry Education Perceptions and Priorities (IMEPP), which displayed good validity and reliability in the study. Results of the study indicate that participants were largely satisfied with the effectiveness of ministry education and the acquired competence of ministers. However, on the whole, ministers and recent graduates were less satisfied with their ministry education and acquired competence than were church members. The study also identified significant differences between ministers, recent graduates and church members with regard to the priorities they perceived theological colleges should pursue.