Size, Conflict, and Opportunities for Interaction: Congregational Effects on Members' Anticipated Support and Negative Interaction

A growing literature examines the role of religious communities as sources of social support for members, and a smaller body of work also explores negative aspects of social relations within congregations. However, very little is known about the characteristics of religious groups that promote or impede the development of supportive networks. We use data from a unique source—the National Congregations Study, linked with individual records from the 1998 General Social Survey (GSS)—to explore this issue. Key findings reveal that: (1) individuals who attend very large churches tend to report lower levels of anticipated support and informal negative interaction; (2) the presence of major congregational conflict tends to dampen anticipated support and increase informal negative interaction; and (3) the absence of a well-defined period for informal socializing before or after the worship service is associated with lower levels of anticipated support, but is unrelated to the frequency of negative interaction among church members. Several implications and promising directions for future research are discussed.     

The Price of the Calling: Exploring Clergy Compensation Using Current Population Survey Data

Previous research shows that clergy make less money than others with similar levels of education. We use Current Population Survey data to offer five contributions to knowledge about clergy compensation. First, we document and take into account the shift in clergy compensation from the provision of free housing to the payment of housing allowances. Second, although the clergy earnings disadvantage appears to have increased over the last 40 years relative to their educational peers, the picture changes when we exclude the highest income occupations. Clergy have lost ground to doctors, lawyers, and investment bankers, but they have gained ground relative to everyone else. Third, these gains are largely because of decline in the number of hours clergy report working. Fourth, we show that clergy working in churches earn less than clergy working elsewhere. Fifth, we document immediate wage penalties for those who become clergy and, among clergy, for those who begin to work in congregations. Overall, although clergy still earn less than comparable workers, their position has improved in recent decades relative to all but the highest earning occupations.     

Proportion of US Congregations that have People Living with HIV

Surveillance studies monitor the prevalence and incidence of HIV, and this information is used by policy makers to design prevention programs and facilitate care for people living with HIV (PLWHIV). Although most of these studies monitor the presence of PLWHIV in the general population or specific communities, some assess the presence of PLWHIV in organizations. One type of organization that has not been examined, yet could potentially play a large role in caring for PLWHIV, is the religious congregation. In this study, we estimate the proportion of US religious congregations that have PLWHIV and examine whether congregations that are in contact with populations with high HIV prevalence and incidence rates are more likely to have PLWHIV using data from a nationally representative sample of congregations and the 2000 Census. Over 10,000 congregations have PLWHIV, and congregations containing, open to, or located in areas with populations with high HIV prevalence and incidence rates are more likely to have them. This study offers new insight into the presence of HIV in the United States and provides information about which congregations may be amenable to serving as sites of HIV programs.     

Reporting a program evaluation: Needs,program plan,intervention, and decisions

The approach to intervention programs varies depending on the methodological perspective adopted. This means that health professionals lack clear guidelines regarding how best to proceed, and it hinders the accumulation of knowledge. The aim of this paper is to set out the essential and common aspects that should be included in any program evaluation report, thereby providing a useful guide for the professional regardless of the procedural approach used. Furthermore, the paper seeks to integrate the different methodologies and illustrate their complementarity, this being a key aspect in terms of real intervention contexts, which are constantly changing. The aspects to be included are presented in relation to the main stages of the evaluation process: needs, objectives and design (prior to the intervention), implementation (during the intervention), and outcomes (after the intervention). For each of these stages the paper describes the elements on which decisions should be based, highlighting the role of empirical evidence gathered through the application of instruments to defined samples and according to a given procedure.     

Performance of chronotypes on memory tests during the morning and the evening shifts

Memory consists of several phases or processes that can be influenced by many factors, including the individual's circadian rhythm and the time of day at which tests are performed. The present objective was to evaluate the performance on memory tests of different chronotypes during the morning and the evening shifts. Subjects (21 men and 26 women, between the ages of 20 and 35 yr.) were evaluated for memory and metamemory differences in the morning and in the afternoon, using a battery of neuropsychological tests composed of the Word List with Emotional Content, Visual Memory, Scale-Semantic Memory, Digit Span, Word-Pairs Associated, Verbal Fluency Test, and Metamemory questionnaire. In the evening shift, there was a statistical difference among chronotypes on the Word List with Neutral Content and on the Verbal Fluency Test. In the morning, there were no statistically significant differences; however, the morning-type subjects had higher scores on the metamemory tests (p<.01), while the evening-type subjects had higher scores in the afternoon (p<.01). In spite of their perception, on Word-Pairs Associated and Word List with Emotional Content, the subjects, independently of their chronotype, showed better performance by the evening than by the morning shift. These results highlight the importance of controlling the shift of day and chronotype in studies with the objective of exploration of human performance.     

Dissociative identity disorder and the sociocognitive model: recalling the lessons of the past.

In a recent article in this journal, D. H. Gleaves (1996) criticized the sociocognitive model (SCM; N. P. Spanos, 1994) of dissociative identity disorder (DID) and argued in favor of a posttraumatic model (PTM) in which DID is conceptualized as a consequence of childhood abuse and other traumatic events. The present authors demonstrate that (a) many of Gleaves's arguments were predicated on misunderstandings of the SCM, (b) scrutiny of the evidence regarding the psychopathology and assessment of DID raises questions concerning the PTM's conceptual and empirical underpinnings, (c) the treatment literature suggests that iatrogenic factors play an important role in the etiology of DID, and (d) the evidence linking child abuse to DID is more problematic than implied by Gleaves. The present authors conclude that Gleaves's analysis underemphasized the cultural manifestations of multiple role enactments and that the history of DID imparts a valuable lesson to contemporary psychotherapists.     

Do Parents and Overweight,Treatment-Seeking Youth Provide Similar Ratings of Youths’ Psychosocial Functioning and Fatigue?

Patterns of agreement between parent and child ratings of psychosocial functioning and fatigue in children with obesity were examined. Analyses demonstrated moderate agreement for social anxiety in elementary children and small agreement for social anxiety in adolescents. Results of analyses of overall quality of life revealed small agreement in children under the age of 8, large agreement in children ages 8–12, and moderate agreement in adolescents ages 13–18. Overall ratings of fatigue demonstrated moderate agreement both in elementary children and in adolescents. A meaningful relationship was found between each factor measured by a parent and a child. Patterns which were unexpected given the existing literature were found; possible hypotheses explaining these patterns are presented; and the need for further research is highlighted.     

Explaining Schism in American Protestant Denominations, 1890–1990

The remarkable degree of religious diversity in the United States is produced more through schisms and mergers occurring to preexisting denominations than through foundings of new religious groups. In this article we analyze schisms, focusing on mainstream Protestant denominations over the period 1890–1990. We treat schism as an organizational process rather than an expression of purely doctrinal disputes; more specifically, we argue that schisms arise from within denominations in response to attempts by denominational elites to achieve organizational consolidation. Event-history techniques are used to test hypotheses concerning resource environments, effects of denominational reorganization, resource mobilization capacity, network linkages, and denominational centralization. Results show that rates of schism are influenced by prior structural changes, size, and linkage to a liberal federation; we find no effects of resource or institutional environments.     

The Political Activities of Religious Congregations in the United States

In recent decades, much research has focused on how religious congregations affect individuals' political participation. However, only scant attention has been paid to examining the various ways in which religious congregations engage in political activism as formal organizational entities. Using data from the 1998 National Congregations Study (NCS), a survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,236 religious congregations, we begin to fill this gap in our knowledge about religion and politics. We report the rates at which congregations engage in a broad range of political activity, and we examine variations in this activity among major religious traditions. We emphasize two basic findings. First, although in absolute terms congregations' levels of political activism seem rather low, relative to other nonpolitical organizations they engage in politics in substantial numbers. Second, there are qualitative rather than quantitative differences in political activity across religious traditions. Religious traditions specialize in different modes of political participation, a fact that is obscured when attention is focused solely on the political activities of conservative religious groups.