The purpose of this study was to examine the role differences between rural and urban pastors, pastors' wives, clerks, and clerks' wives on indicators of burnout and marital adjustment. In addition, the purpose of this research was to develop a pool of information relevant to the future understanding and research of the differences between clergy families in rural and urban communities. Variables analyzed included burnout and marital adjustment. Burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981) and marital adjustment was measured by the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976). Role theory was employed as the primary conceptual framework. The sample consisted of 248 individuals composed of pastors, pastors' wives, clerks of sessions, and clerks' wives in urban and rural communities from the Presbyterian Church in America across the southeastern United States. / Data were obtained by means of mailed surveys to pastors and elders and were followed up by mailed postcards and telephone reminders. Data analysis supported findings of some previous research that pastors and their wives have a lower quality of life than clerk dyads. It was revealed, however, that distinctions need to be made according to type of community since the stresses surrounding them differ. Two way analysis of variance on husbands indicated significant main effects on both location and ecclesiastical role for Frequency of Personal Accomplishment. Results from t-tests revealed that rural pastors had a significantly higher mean on Frequency of Personal Accomplishment than rural clerks. However, there was no difference between urban pastors and urban clerks. Two way analysis of variance on wives indicated a significant interaction effect on the subscale Frequency of Personal Accomplishment. Results from t-tests revealed that urban clerks' wives had s significantly higher mean than urban pastors' wives, but that rural pastors' wives had a significantly higher mean than rural clerks' wives. Higher scores on personal accomplishment indicate a greater sense of accomplishment about one's role. Raw regression coefficients on age for husbands indicated that as age increases levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization decrease while marital adjustment and personal accomplishment levels increase. Results on age for wives revealed that as age increases emotional exhaustion and depersonalization decrease. It was observed, however, that marital adjustment and personal accomplishment decrease with age noting that wives experience a lower quality of life than husbands with the increase of age. Means on the MBI subscale Emotional Exhaustion Frequency indicated that rural pastor's wives were more emotionally exhausted than both rural and urban pastors. / Additional demographic comparisons and hypothesis testing led to conclusions that rural pastoral couples have a lower quality of life than urban pastoral couples. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: A, page: 2669. / Major Professor: Calvin E. Zongker. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78055 |
| Contributors | Wolstencroft, Joseph Michael., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 310 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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