The African American population has persistently suffered a greater disease burden from uncontrolled high blood pressure than any other ethnic/racial group. There have been many attempts to reduce the health disparity but with little changes in adverse outcomes over the years. As African Americans are very religious and incorporate spirituality into their everyday lives, this research followed a faith-based approach and was conducted in the church setting. The study was guided by the Illness Representation Model (IRM) and the Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality (TCCDU). One hundred male and female participants were recruited from five African American churches in Southeast Florida. Each participant met the inclusion criteria of being 35-80 years old, diagnosed with high blood pressure, members/attendees of a Judeo Christian church, and able to read and write English. A researcher-developed, five-day faith based health devotional which included high blood pressure education infused with Bible messages was used as the intervention. A quasi-experimental design of pre and posttesting was employed to evaluate high blood pressure knowledge and illness representation. High blood pressure knowledge was tested using the High Blood Pressure Prevention IQ Quiz (HBPP-IQ) and illness representation tested with the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R). The results demonstrated statistically significant improvements in four out of the five hypotheses tested, with a caveat for the timeline representation (presented as two separate outcomes). The findings indicated: High blood pressure knowledge (HBPP-IQ): p < .000; Illness Representation (IPQ-R); timeline acute/chronic: p = .003; timeline cyclical: p = .20; consequences: p = .024; personal control: p = .0005; treatment control: p = .002. These results support the use of the faith-based teaching method in educating African Americans about high blood pressure as an effort that might improve illness representation in this population. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The prevalence and incidence of breast cancer is an important issue that is affecting all women, but African American women have the lowest survival rates after breast cancer diagnosis. Historically, the Black church and faith leaders have been essential in promoting health in the African American community. Moreover, faith-based interventions have become more common within the African American community in addressing factors that affect survival rates such as early detection, cultural barriers, and education. Currently, there is not clear information on the perspectives faith leaders have on their experiences with implementing breast health interventions in their places of worship. This phenomenological study used interpretivism as the conceptual framework to understand the experiences of the faith leaders of African American congregations who participated in Worship in Pink, a faith-based breast health program implemented among congregations in metropolitan Atlanta. The research questions sought to answer what faith leaders' experiences were with participating in this intervention and what situations or contexts may have influenced their experiences. In depth, semistructured interviews were administered to a sample of 5 faith leaders who participated in Worship in Pink. There were 3 themes and 1 subtheme that emerged because of the study. The themes included partnership with Komen Atlanta, increased awareness, impact on the community, and resources. The positive social change implications include knowledge useful for faith leaders, program developers, health policy makers, health educators, and other researchers who are seeking to understand experiences of faith leaders in order to improve breast health and awareness of African American women.

Researchers have revealed that rural African American communities, which have been adversely impacted by disasters, could minimize personal injuries and property damage by being prepared before a disaster strikes. Data from past studies have shown that social networks, such as faith-based organizations (FBOs), have been instrumental in assisting rural African American communities recover from disasters such as floods and fires. This exploratory qualitative case study addressed the research question: How a rural, FBO organized resources to build a community based, all-volunteer fire department. The conceptual framework for this study incorporated concepts from social network theory and social capital theory. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 11 participants. Data were collected through interviews, newspapers articles, and church documents. Data were analyzed using inductive analysis and Colaizzi's method for determining emergent themes. Results revealed that community members lacked the knowledge and resources needed to build the fire department. Findings further revealed that the FBO was the hub of activities where social networks organized the social capital needed to engage, recruit, and unite members in building the fire station. The themes of determination, dedication, resilience, and persistence further revealed that community members used social networks and social capital to overcome obstacles to building the fire station. Findings from this study contributes to positive social change by providing information to human services professionals, government agencies, policy makers, and community members on how FBOs can be utilized as social networks that can leverage the social capital needed to prepare isolated, rural communities for disasters.

The lack of research regarding the potential relationship between the reduction of bullying through participation in faith-based organizations may have failed to expand available bullying intervention methods. Faith-based organizations could assist in reducing bullying via moral instruction, boundary-setting guidance, social engagement techniques, and understanding social engagement with the bully's parents. This study explored the relationship between bullying and involvement in faith-based activities through (a) discovering the association between the reduction of bullying incidence or inclinations and faith-based activities, and (b) identifying the mechanisms responsible for the suppression of bullying orientations and behaviors through faith-based activities. The theoretical construct of the study was Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory and its 5 level classification of diverse social contexts (i.e. microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem). This theory was utilized in the creation of the central research questions of the study. The data for the questions was gathered through one-on-one interviews with (a) 11 adolescents, (b) 6 parents, and (c) 3 church officials. The interviews were transcribed, and codes and themes identified. The sample group for the research was ninth grade students enrolled at a school in the Midwest. The study found that parents felt more responsible for their influence on their child's attitude toward violence over faith-based activity. However, the organizations were also shown to be effective in contributing to strengthened social relationships and decreased bullying incidences. This study may contribute to social change by providing insight into bullying prevention and mitigation.

This dissertation research is a study of the anthropology of policy with welfare reform in general and charitable choice in particular as its focus. The study begins with the notion that policies work as instruments of governance and consequently have social and political implications. These policies are examined by exploring the manner in which Catholic Charities and policy makers in Florida are responding to the charitable choice mandate and how their views are shaping local policies. The study is framed within anthropological principles pertaining to economic, humanistic and philosophical tenets. The study provides a historical background of poverty, the development of the welfare state in the United States as well as some of the social, economic, and political factors that shape social policies. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with representatives from Catholic Charities, government agencies, legislative committees, and faith-based organizations, and through document reviews. Data were analyzed qualitatively and were managed using the software Atlas.ti. Analysis of the data show that while there is increased convergence between the state and faith-based organizations (FBOs), there is some hesitancy on the part of religious organizations to assume full responsibility for the poor, particularly without having any funding guarantees. The data also suggests that through the implementation of charitable choice religious organizations face the risk of becoming highly dependent on the state and therefore loose their voice and the possibility of lobbying for the poor. Furthermore, the data suggests that there are some aspects of the implementation of charitable choice that have not received congressional approval and may eventually jeopardize the entire faith-based initiative.

Religious charity is said to be one of the oldest phenomena which has been present in many societies and social welfare provision is one of the central aspects of religious charity. Although, religiously motivated welfare provision has an older history than nation state based welfare provision, with the advent of the modern welfare state social aid area has been taken -partially or totally- from the religious authorities. However starting with 80s and attracting considerable interest by 90s in contemporary world, religious themes, namely faith based organizations, have been visible again in social aid area. As a form of faith based welfare provision, Faith Based Organization (FBO) is the central concept of this study / particularly Islamist FBOs will be on the focus of this study. In that sense FBOs will be studied as a part in history of Islamist faith based welfare provision in Turkey. The central hypotheses of the thesis, FBOs are organizations fertilized by changing economic and political climate of 70s. Changing state religion relationships has a significant impact on FBO proliferation in Turkey. By combating through poverty FBOs have big problems in terms of financial accountability, permanency, trustworthiness and professionalism.

American presidents have maintained an equilibrium between the role of church and state in government affairs via the nation’s civil religion and a “rhetorical contract” between those secular and sacred interests. While other presidents have incorporated religion in their rhetorical execution of office, George W. Bush has done so in a manner different from his predecessors, emphasizing the role of faith in his administration’s beliefs, actions, and policies. Such rhetoric upsets the tenuous relationship between sectarian and secular affairs. Bush’s breach of the rhetorical contract can be explained by Foucault’s notion of pastoral power. Using practices once associated with the church, the savvy government leader may better control his public. I argue that President Bush has shifted the balance of power between organized religion and government, specifically by means of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, thereby corrupting traditional notions of civil religion in the process of implementing his unique form of new pastoral power.

A quantitative research study was conducted with teenagers attending Bandina Christian Youth Camp for one week in the summer of 2008. Students were divided into two groups; a control group and an intervention group. All participants were given a Self- Reflective Survey immediately prior to and following the week of summer camp. In addition to the pre- and post- Self-Reflective Surveys, the intervention group was required to complete Gallup's StrengthsQuest assessment (to determine his/her five greatest strengths) and e-mail those findings to this researcher before the first camp session. Once at camp, the intervention group participated in a five day Faith Based Strengths Training class one hour a day. The intervention group recognized and identified all 34 strengths, learned the uniqueness of his/her top five strengths, identified and related to famous individuals and their strengths and explored optimal career fields that best correlated to the participants' top five strengths. Strengths Training proved to be an effective tool in changing the intervention group's self confidence, sense of direction and his or her personal desire to learn more about Strengths collectively with a .03 p at an alpha level of .05. Youth based national organizations such as Boys & Girls Club, Boys Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and others could greatly enhance their programs by incorporating Strengths Training into their curriculum, as Strengths Training builds on the development of core values, positive self image and character development that all of these national organizations strive to provide the youth of today. The summer camp experience offers a distinct opportunity for learning and exploration. This unique educational atmosphere sets up a positive cognitive environment where youth are typically more receptive to learning new concepts and ideas. The intervention group outcomes for this quantitative research study resulted in a positive outcome with only five hours of training. This infers a positive impact to not only the Y generation, but future generations to come and raises the need for more research in how these youth based national organizations can not only implement Strengths Training into their existing programs but network Strengths Training.

Along with the power loss of welfare regimes in Europe, the problems which have always existed in the field of poverty started to reemerge as the one of the primary matters of humanity. However, in this period, the state whose intervention to economy was being already argued was deprived of the ability of intervention to the issue of poverty. After 1980s, the new generation social aid organizations emerged in the area of welfare, which was covered by the modern state institutions before. Some of these organizations can be titled as faith based organizations (FBOs) which are the organizations that refer directly or indirectly to a religion or religious values, and they function as welfare providers or as political actors. Today, faith based social aid organizations disperse into a wide area, from the sub groups of armed organizations to worship centers of several religions. These organizations perform a welfare function by carrying a number of activities. This study examines the FBOs in the sample of a non-governmental organization, Deniz Feneri (Light House) Association in Turkey. In this regard, the study opens a discussion for a new concept for the world as well as for Turkey.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009. / Prepared for: School of Social Work. Title from title-page of electronic thesis. Bibliography: leaves 176-193.