The Hmong in the United States: An Overview for Mental Health Professionals

Since Laos fell to the communist Pathet Lao, many Hmong people have relocated to the United States. Because of the vast cultural differences, the Hmong have had a notoriously difficult time adjusting to life in the United States. In view of the many problems faced by Hmong Americans, it is likely that many of them will seek or be referred to non-Hmong professionals for various counseling services. This article provides an overview of Hmong culture and a history of their migration to the United States. Specific adjustment and mental health problems are noted and suggestions are provided for designing appropriate counseling interventions for Hmong Americans.     

Protestant Clergy and the Culture Wars: An Empirical Test of Hunter's Thesis

Examinations of culture wars typically assess the attitudes of the American public. This study instead focuses on culture wars among religious elites—clergy—and tests three aspects of the culture wars thesis: (1) whether religious elites are engaged in culture wars, (2) whether clergy attitudes are polarized on these issues, and (3) whether religious authority or religious affiliation is more salient in creating culture wars cleavages. Using data from a large random sample of Protestant clergy, we find a substantial amount of engagement in culture wars by all types of Protestant clergy. The amount of polarization is more attributable to views of religious authority (i.e., biblical inerrancy) than to religious tradition. Moreover, polarization among clergy is somewhat more evident on culture wars issues than on other social and political issues. These findings are generally supportive of the culture wars thesis and should help return examinations of culture wars back to where they were originally theorized to be waged: among elites.     

Models of Clergy Spouse Involvement in Protestant Christian Congregations

While all adults in the paid labor force face the difficult task of managing the competing pressures of work and family life, clergy families encounter an added dynamic in the way spouses are integrated into the church. Yet spouses approach involvement in unique and varied ways, making intentional choices over how much or little to participate in the congregations their husbands and wives pastor. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 46 pastors and clergy spouses in five Protestant Christian denominations, this study describes three models of clergy spouse participation showing the diverse ways women and men interpret and enact their role through the ongoing management of boundaries. I consider several social factors informing the model a clergy spouse embraces—pressure from congregants or one’s own ideas, congregational precedent, gender and stage in the life cycle—shedding light on the interaction between individual preferences and contextual factors. In doing so, I argue that although the women and men in this study are continually recreating what it means to be a clergy spouse, they remain heavily rooted in a traditional expectation that pastors’ wives and husbands provide support to their spouse’s church and calling to pastoral ministry.     

The Life of Leaders: An Intensive Health Program for Clergy

Clergy suffer from chronic disease rates that are higher than those of non-clergy. Health interventions for clergy are needed, and some exist, although none to date have been described in the literature. Life of Leaders is a clergy health intervention designed with particular attention to the lifestyle and beliefs of United Methodist clergy, directed by Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare Center of Excellence in Faith and Health. It consists of a two-day retreat of a comprehensive executive physical and leadership development process. Its guiding principles include a focus on personal assets, multi-disciplinary, integrated care, and an emphasis on the contexts of ministry for the poor and community leadership. Consistent with calls to intervene on clergy health across multiple ecological levels, Life of Leaders intervenes at the individual and interpersonal levels, with potential for congregational and religious denominational change. Persons wishing to improve the health of clergy may wish to implement Life of Leaders or borrow from its guiding principles.     

Credentialism Across Creeds: Clergy Education and Stratification in Protestant Denominations

In this paper, we explore how Protestant denominations use education to stratify their pastors among lower and higher income jobs and how this use of education intersects with gender. We assume that reliance on education as anindication of job qualification ultimately reflects accommodation to secular norms and hypothesize that it will be practiced most strongly in theologically liberal contexts. Next, we hypothesize that women will benefit from education more than men, a pattern that is typical of secular labor markets. And we predict that education will have a stronger effect on income in denominations where regional clergy administrators have influence in matching pastors to jobs. Data are taken from the 1994 "Ordained Women and Men Study"and consist of career information on clergy in fifteen denominations. Contrary to expectations, clergy degrees have a stronger effect on income in conservative than in liberal denominations. We further find that women clergy receive lower income returns to their degrees in denominations requiring a Master of Divinity for ordination but receive higher returns in the others. Finally, results show that seminary prestige is more beneficial in denominations where pastors are hired directly by congregations rather than placed in congregations by regional clergy administrators.     

The Continuity Perspective of Aging and Retirement Applied to Protestant Clergy: An Analysis of Theory

ABSTRACT

This paper has examined some of the conceptual and operational issues of the continuity perspective, which is considered as more appropriate than others reviewed for the study of clergy retirement. As a solution to the dilemma of the inevitable changes associated with old age and the notion of continuity, the use of the sociological concept of “career” was suggested. With this concept as a guide, four components – situational/environmental factors, activity, psychological continuity, and occupational subculture – of a continuity perspective have been outlined.     

Orthodoxy Niches: Diversity in Congregational Orthodoxy Among Three Protestant Denominations in the United States

The organizational niche, a fruitful concept from the organizational ecology literature, frames this study on the diverse orthodoxy of congregations within the same denomination. Congregations diversify along a conservative‐to‐liberal continuum, which lessens niche overlap with nearby congregations in their denomination. Pastors and priests in United Methodist and Episcopal congregations in three U.S. regions were able to locate their congregations (and other congregations in their denomination in close proximity) along this conservative‐to‐liberal continuum, an indication that orthodoxy distinctions were important to congregational identity. In comparison, Assemblies of God congregations showed little intradenominational diversity in orthodoxy, since sectarian boundaries narrow their niche. Theoretical and methodological implications of this intradenominational diversity are explored.     

Considering Weight Loss Programs and Public Health Partnerships in American Evangelical Protestant Churches

The obesity epidemic is a critical public health threat facing the USA. With the advent of American Evangelical Protestant (AEP) weight loss guides and narratives, AEP churches could potentially aid public health agencies in combatting obesity, and some scholars have called for investment in partnerships between public health agencies and religious institutions. This paper examines the theological and social underpinnings of AEP weight loss programs and considers the potential benefits and risks of public health partnerships with AEP churches to combat obesity. While AEP churches may be successful at empowering people to lose weight, AEP weight loss also carries several risks. These risks include reinforcing gendered bodily norms, stigmatizing both overweight bodies and unhealthy behaviors deemed to be sinful (for example, overeating), and failing to acknowledge social factors that promote obesity. These risks must be assessed and minimized to create appropriate public health weight loss partnerships with AEP communities.     

Rethinking Boundary Ambiguity from an Ecological Perspective: Stress in Protestant Clergy Families

Family researchers have virtually ignored the families of clergy as a population of interest. Their unique social ecology, however, can offer a profitable case study in family stress. The genesis of Boss's (1977, 1987) boundary ambiguity construct will be reviewed and critiqued. Bronfenbrenner's (1979) approach will then be applied to the boundary problems of clergy families. It is argued that an ecological analysis of boundary ambiguity in clergy families will lead to a higher-order understanding of the construct itself.     

Evidence-Based Parental Involvement Programs in the United States of America and Korea

Offering a family involvement program is a typical approach for helping students with or at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders and other behaviors of concern. The present paper examines evidence-based parental involvement programs in the United States and Korea. Several differences exist between programs in the two countries including evaluation, collaboration, the support of the government and related institutions, differences in perception of administrators, and the professional staff. The authors suggested several recommendations including considering the requirements of guidance for developing effective programs, designing ways to evaluate programs, encouraging collaboration, preparing qualified professional staff, and developing culturally appropriate programs for children and youth with special needs.     

From Pastor to Pensioner: A Study of Retired Canadian Protestant Clergy from the Continuity Perspective

ABSTRACT

By using the Continuity Perspective, this study investigates how clergy adjust to retirement. Four sets of factors were examined; Situational factors, activities, occupational subculture, and psychological continuity. Methods of data collection include mailed questionnaires and personal interviews. The sample consists of 185 Anglican, Baptist, and United Church retired clergy. It was found that (1) the clergy maintain continuity of their1 lifestyles except when some situational factors force them to alter their way of life; (2) retired ministers tend not to develop new activities, but continue to participate in existing ones; (3) the occupational subculture of Protestant clergy has the function of facilitating their retirement; and (4) clergy appear to maintain a stability in the type of responses they have to changes and crises.     

The Honeymoon is Over: Occupational Relocation and Changes in Mental Health Among United Methodist Clergy

In this study we examine how the process of relocation affects the mental health of United Methodist clergy and the extent to which relocation is associated with changes in clergy perception of the workplace environment and feelings of self-efficacy. We analyzed data from a longitudinal survey of 1375 clergy, one quarter of whom experienced a move between the baseline survey in 2008 and the follow-up survey 2 years later. Contrary to expectations, we find that mental distress decreased for those who recently moved compared to those who had moved 2 years prior. We also find strong evidence of a “honeymoon effect.” Recently relocated clergy report higher levels of self-efficacy and higher workplace morale compared to those who do not relocate. This study underscores the importance of examining the short and longer-term impact of moving on mental distress and presses scholars to consider the ways in which, under certain circumstances, relocation may improve mental health.     

Theology Matters: Comparing the Traits of Growing and Declining Mainline Protestant Church Attendees and Clergy

Using surveys, this study gathered and examined demographic and religious characteristics of attendees and clergy of a group of growing mainline Protestant churches in Canada and compared them to those from declining mainline Protestant churches from the same geographical region and group of denominations. In total, 2255 attendees from 22 churches (13 declining and 9 growing) participated along with their church’s clergy (N = 29). Several notable differences between the characteristics of growing and declining churches were identified. When other factors were controlled for in multivariate analysis, the theological conservatism of both attendees and clergy emerged as important factors in predicting church growth.     

美国家庭的衰弱:对卫生保健制度的一些启示

传统社会的人并不孤单,当他们生病、衰老时会得到家庭成员的照料.在美国,越来越多的孩子出生在婚姻之外,家庭正在逐步消失.在那些经济和社会资源来源极少的人群中,传统家庭消失得最为迅速,预示着日益增加的社会反常状态.即使对于卫生保健极为重要的非正式支持网络没有丧失,传统家庭也一样正在衰弱.因此,医疗改革必需重视家庭医疗保健储蓄账户,以阻止家庭完整性的剧烈衰弱.     

美国健康战略及启示

介绍了美国健康战略出台的背景,并重点介绍了美国“健康公民2010”战略的目标、优先领域、主要健康指标以及相应的行动计划,比较了美国“健康公民2000”和“健康公民2010”的异同,在此基础上总结了美国健康战略发展的基本特点与经验,并提出了对我国制定和实施“健康中国2020”战略的启示。     

Clergy Work-Related Psychological Health: Listening to the Ministers of Word and Sacrament Within the United Reformed Church in England

Drawing on the classic model of balanced affect proposed by Bradburn (The structure of psychological well-being, Aldine, Chicago, IL, 1969), this study conceptualised poor work-related psychological health in terms of high levels of negative affect in the absence of acceptable levels of positive affect. In order to illuminate self-perceptions of work-related psychological health among a well-defined group of clergy, a random sample of 58 ministers of word and sacrament serving within the west midlands synod of the United Reformed Church in England completed an open-ended questionnaire concerned with the following six guiding questions. Do you enjoy your work? How would you define stress? How would you define burnout? What stresses are there in your ministry? What do you do to keep healthy? What can the church do to enhance the work-related psychological health of ministers? Content analysis highlighted the main themes recurring through these open-ended responses. The conclusion is drawn that ministers of word and sacrament within the United Reformed Church in England are exposed to a number of recurrent recognisable sources of stress. Suggestions are advanced regarding the need for future more detailed research and for the development of more effective pastoral strategies.