Proximity Matters: Exploring Relationships Among Neighborhoods, Congregations, and the Residential Patterns of Members

Using the Philadelphia Congregations Census, the Neighborhood Change Database, the U.S. Census, and geographic information systems (GIS) software, this study compared characteristics of congregations made up of members who live nearby their congregation's building to those with more members who commute from outside the immediate area or outside the city. We considered whether the neighborhood characteristics in which the "commuter" versus "resident" congregations were located differed in regard to racial composition, socioeconomic status, and residential stability. The study found that where the pastor lives in relation to the building, denomination, racial composition of membership, and the stability of the neighborhood were related to members' residential proximity to the congregation building.     

African American and European American Perceptions of Problematic Issues in Interethnic Communication Effectiveness

African American and European American perceptions of interethnic communication effectiveness were compared. Interethnic communication was conceptualized as a problematic event (perceptually organized into communication issues). Hypotheses proposed that ethnic identity would predict conversational issues which, in turn, would predict satisfaction. Nine issues salient to communication were derived from previous research: powerlessness, stereotyping, acceptance, goal attainment, authenticity, understanding, expressiveness, shared worldview, relational solidarity, and relaxation. The hypotheses were tested for differences between African Americans and European Americans with additional tests far relationship closeness. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the factorial validity of the issues and indicated that identity had both political and social dimensions for African Americans but only a single dimension for European Americans. Path analysis did not support the causal ordering. However, when the causal link between identity and issues was eliminated and satisfaction was regressed on the entire set of predictor variables the multiple Rs were above .91 for both ethnic groups. Different issues were associated with satisfaction for each group and for close and distant relationships for each ethnic group.