Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. E. Jane Burkhead, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Services. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 15, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. A.)--Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-116).

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-42).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Columbia International University, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 257-261).

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes abstract and vita. "August 2002" Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-86).

Thesis (DTh)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Of the approximately 1 million Army Soldiers who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan at least one time between 2001 and 2007, 18.5% screened positive for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms post-deployment (Tanielian et al., 2008). Deployed Soldiers are at a high risk for unsuccessful reintegration as evidenced by the presence of mental health symptoms. Because of the lack of evidence demonstrating the relationships between resilience and other factors that may contribute to mental health outcomes in active duty Soldiers, the purpose of this study was to determine if relationships existed among these variables in Soldiers with a recent deployment history. An adaptation of Richardson’s Metatheory of resilience guided this study. A convenience sample of 350 active duty army junior enlisted and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) who were within 6 - 12 months from returning from deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan and stationed at Fort Campbell were recruited to participate in this cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study. Seven self-report instruments were used to collect data: (1) Demographic Survey, (2) Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, (3) Deployment Risk and Resiliency Inventory (DRRI), (4) Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, (5) Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, (6) Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and (7) Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Military Version. Data were entered into SPSS 18 and analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlations, and hierarchical linear regression. Results revealed many statistically significant correlations. Ten predictors resulted from this analysis and were placed into separate regression analyses with the three mental health outcomes. Each of the mental health outcome variables (anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms) accounted for a significant amount of variance in the other. In addition to PTSD and depression, post-deployment life events, deployment environment, and resilience accounted for the most significant amount of variance in anxiety symptoms. In addition to anxiety and PTSD symptoms, post-deployment life events accounted for the most significant amount of variance in depression symptoms. Deployment environment, post-deployment life events, and post-deployment support accounted for the most significant amount of variance in PTSD symptoms, in addition to anxiety and depression. The implications of the findings and recommendations for future nursing practice, education, and research opportunities are abundant. / text

African Americans are disproportionately affected by HIV comprising only 12% of the U.S. population but accounting for nearly 50% of all HIV cases (CDC, 2009). HIV surveillance data estimate that one in 30 Black women will be diagnosed with HIV during their lifetime. For many HIV positive African American women, treatment of HIV infection and the subsequent psychological stress is complicated by lack of resources and competing life priorities. These women also face additional challenges such as fear of disclosure and lack of adequate social support. The complexity of challenges faced by African American women who are HIV positive highlight the need to explore their preferred ways of coping. Studies show that minority women tend to utilize alternative coping strategies when faced with dual mental and physical health challenges. Spirituality has been found to have a direct relationship with cognitive and social functioning and inversely related to HIV symptoms among African American women. Psychosocial interventions are a key component to improved quality of life for women living with HIV and spirit-level interventions are shown to buffer psychosocial distress experienced by HIV positive persons. This dissertation will consist of three publishable quality articles that examine issues associated with the function of spirituality in HIV positive women. This first article will review published spiritually oriented interventions and compare, contrast, and critique the various components, sample, and intervention methods to determine the applicability and replicability of these interventions as a basis for increasing treatment options for co-morbid African American women. The second article will offer a conceptual framework incorporating the health belief model and a discussion of Lazarus & Folkman's stress and coping model to examine theoretical frameworks for integrating spirituality into social work practice interventions for HIV positive women. The third article for this dissertation seeks to contribute new information to the literature on the spirituality in the lives of HIV positive women. This article will present data that identifies, defines, and describes various uses of spirituality as a coping mechanism. The article will also discuss historical factors that influence the use of religion and spirituality among African Americans. / text

Over the last century, people have questioned the ability of African American cultural knowledge to facilitate academic achievement among African American students. The cultural understandings of this group are often positioned as incompatible with the beliefs, practices and values that produce mainstream and school success. The spirituality of African Americans is a significant, yet often overlooked, component of African American culture and life. Through group interviews, in-depth interviews, personal narratives and participant observations, this dissertation explores the role of spirituality in the school experiences of African American female adolescents. Spirituality is defined as the conglomeration of beliefs, practices and values that connect an individual to an unseen force(s) and/or a non-material realm. Cognitive, behavioral and affective school outcomes are products of spiritual and personal development. Thus, this study pays particular attention to the processes and factors that cultivate the spiritual identities of this group. Family and religious organizations commonly initiate the spiritual awareness of African Americans. Lived experiences in contexts shaped by intersections of racism, sexism, classism and heterosexism facilitate their development of individualized spiritual self-understandings, expressions and practices. To privilege the perspectives of African American femaleix adolescents, Black feminist epistemology and critical youth studies guided this project’s design and methods of data collection and analysis. Additionally, this work builds upon the relational framework for the study of spirituality and religion in the lives of African Americans to explore this group’s spiritual development, understandings and school outcomes. This dissertation suggests that the theological perspectives of African American female adolescents directly impact their academic beliefs, behaviors, and school experiences. Understandings of God and employment of spiritual practices may act as protective factors that cultivate the educational resilience and academic self-confidence of this group. Additionally, African American female adolescents may employ spiritual beliefs to promote unity and build community on their school campus. / text

<p> <i><b>Objective:</b></i> Intimacy is an essential part of marital relationships, spiritual relationships, and is also a factor in well-being. There is little research simultaneously examining the links among spiritual intimacy (defined as positive religious coping and a relationship with God), relational intimacy, and well-being. Data from the Adventist Health Study-2&rsquo;s Biopsychosocial Religion and Health Study (AHS-2 BRHS) were analyzed to first examine these links, and then to examine whether religious variables predict positive and negative perceptions of one&rsquo;s spouse.</p><p> <i><b>Design:</b></i> Structural equation modeling was used to examine associations among spiritual intimacy, relational intimacy, spiritual meaning, and well-being in a cross-sectional study of 5,720 married adults aged 29-100 years. Also, positive and negative spouse characteristics were regressed on control variables and 16 religious variables. This sample included 6,683 married adults aged 29-100 years.</p><p> <i><b>Results:</b></i> In the original structural model all direct associations between spiritual intimacy, relational intimacy, and well-being were significant and positive. With spiritual meaning as a mediating variable, the direct connections of spiritual intimacy to relational intimacy and to well-being became weakly negative. However, the indirect associations of spiritual intimacy with well-being were strongly positive through spiritual meaning. </p><p> Positive spouse characteristics were most strongly related to higher gratitude and lower negative religious coping; and negative spouse characteristics to greater negative religious coping and less gratitude. The higher participants rated their spouse&rsquo;s religiosity the better they rated their spouse. Conversely, the higher participants rated their own religiosity the worse they rated their spouse. For some religion variables there were gender and ethnic differences in prediction of spouse characteristics.</p><p> <i><b>Conclusion:</b></i> These findings suggest the central place of spiritual meaning in understanding the relationship of spiritual intimacy with marital intimacy and to well-being. They also suggest that individual religious variables have a strong association with how one views one&rsquo;s spouse, and thus need to be considered as important factors in relational intimacy. They also affirm the interplay of spiritual intimacy with relational intimacy and the need to consider both gender and ethnicity as contributing factors.</p>