Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
if I had been up all night with a sick child. I know that if I dont get
up to make him breakfast, he would hit me and Im scared. . . . I
met my husband at church. . . . I want to do what is right to follow
God. My pastor said I can separate (from him) but I dont have
grounds to divorce him. My mother told me that I am in a domestic
violence relationship and should get help. I never thought of my
situation as a domestic violence relationship. But I decided to call
and get more information. . . . Is your counseling confidential? I
dont want people to know. (a client of a domestic violence
agency)
RESEARCH STUDY
METHODOLOGY
The sample for this study consisted of 294 Protestant and Catholic
ministers from a sample pool of 764 clergy who were randomly selected
from telephone directories in three counties in Southern California: San
Bernardino County, Riverside County and some adjacent cities in Los
Angeles County (Pomona, La Verne, Walnut, Rowland Heights, West
Covina, La Puente, San Dimas, Diamond Bar & Glendora). In the be-
ginning, 889 Protestant and Catholic churches were randomly se-
lected from the telephone directories and a four-page questionnaire
was mailed to them. Of these questionnaires, 125 of them did not reach
the church due to an address change or the church no longer exists. This
left 764 churches/ministers in the sample pool. Each church was as-
signed an identification number that was noted on the questionnaire so
that there would be a record as to which completed questionnaire was
returned. Churches that did not respond to the first mailing received a
second mailing two and one-half to eight weeks later. Follow-up tele-
phone calls (a maximum of four attempts to each church) were made
two to eight weeks after the second mailing to those churches that still
did not respond to the mailings, in an attempt to increase the response
rate and to explore reasons for non-participation. These telephone calls
followed a script that was developed to insure uniformity in the calls.
Telephone calls were made to 532 churches. A total of two hundred
ninety-four (a 38% response rate) usable questionnaires were returned
and used in this study.
Traditionally, a research method that uses mailed questionnaires
tends to elicit a low response rate from its participants. In past research
studies that used mailed questionnaires among the clergy, the response
rates seem to be influenced by the topic of the research study, or the or-
ganizational affiliation of the researcher conducting the study (e.g.,
secular vs. religious organizations). In studies that had a high re-
sponse rate among the clergy, the topics were related to religious mat-
ters or pastoral duties such as theological positions (65% response rate
in Gilbert, 1982), styles of pastoral counseling (37.6% response rate in
Beech, 1970) and needs assessment of the pastors counseling demands
46 JOURNAL OF RELIGION & ABUSE
(72% response rate in Ruppert & Rogers, 1985). Studies that examined
topics unrelated to the traditional pastoral duties seem to have a lower
response rate even though these studies included additional mailings
and follow-up telephone calls to increase the response rate. Ammerran
(1970) conducted a study on the relationship between religion and poli-
tics that had a response rate of 35%. McDaniel (1989) explored the
views held by the clergy toward various marketing activities in a na-
tional survey that had a response rate of 29%.
Sensitive topics that were seemingly unrelated to the traditional pas-
toral duties or where the clergy have less experience in the area may
contribute to a low response rate from the clergy. Alsdurf (1985) had
conducted one of the earlier research studies in the field of spouse abuse
and the faith community. The response rate for his study was 4.9%.
Midgett (1993) of Arizona State University sent questionnaires on fam-
ily violence to ministers in Arizona. The response rate was 25%. Nancy
Nason-Clark (2000) conducted a survey among Anglican clergy in New
Brunswick, Canada on family violence. Her affiliation is with the Reli-
gion and Violence Research Team and included church representatives
among them. The response rate from the clergy in this survey was 60%.
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
Five scales were used to measure the following variables: (1) tradi-
tional attitude toward Christian women; (2) fundamentalist religious
beliefs; (3) belief in myths of spouse abuse; (4) recognition of signs of
abuse; and (5) breadth of definition of abuse. In addition, there was a de-
mographic section asking for personal information (e.g., number of for-
mal counseling courses taken, denomination, the number of years in the
pastorate, self-rating on the fundamentalist-liberalism continuum, etc.).
Bible is the word of God and must be believed in its entirety. The reli-
ability coefficient was 0.90.
An additional three new Likert scales were developed for this study:
Belief in Myths of Spouse Abuse, Recognition of Signs of Battered
Women, and Breadth of Definition of Wife Abuse. The ten-item Belief
in Myth scale measured the degree to which one believes in myths sur-
rounding spouse abuse and included such statements as: The abuse
cannot be that terrible or the women would leave. Batterers are uned-
ucated men who are unable to cope with the world. The reliability co-
efficient for this subscale was 0.83. The eleven-item Recognition of
Signs of Battered Women scale measured the degree to which one rec-
ognizes the signs of wife abuse and included such statements as: She
seems to take the blame for mishaps in the family. She is hesitant to
provide information when asked about her relationship/marriage. The
reliability coefficient was 0.90. The 21-item Breadth of Definition of
Wife Abuse scale measured the extent to which one defines certain be-
haviors as abusive, and it included such statements as: He monitors
48 JOURNAL OF RELIGION & ABUSE
how she spends her time (run errands, commute to work, etc.) and He
screams and yells at her. The items included behaviors that were
considered physically, psychologically and financially abusive. Re-
spondents were asked to rate each item with regards to whether it rep-
resented wife abuse. The reliability coefficient was 0.96.
POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS
Maturation
Mono-Method Bias
External Validity
RESULTS
Note: The means in the same row that share the same superscript are not significantly different by Tukeys.
The ministers were asked to rate the degree of responsibility that the
wife and the husband have in spouse abuse on a scale between zero
(not at all responsible) and nine (totally responsible). Table 2 shows
the mean differences among the ministers. There was no significant dif-
ference among the three categories of ministers regarding the degree of
the wifes responsibility for spouse abuse. All the ministers tended to
rate the wife as having little responsibility in an abusive situation.
There were significant differences among the ministers, however, re-
garding the perceived responsibility of the husband for wife abuse. The
Catholic priests rated the husband as having significantly lower respon-
sibility than did either the Protestant male ministers or female ministers.
This might suggest that the differences among the ministers views on
the husbands responsibility may be due to the ministers degree of ad-
herence to fundamentalist religious belief rather than to differences be-
tween the Protestant and Catholic religions. However, when multiple
regression was used to examine which variables from among gender,
denomination, male headship, fundamentalist religious belief, females
rights and worth, and equality of the sexes predicted responsibility of
the husband, the only variable that predicted responsibility of the hus-
band was denomination (Catholic or Protestant). One could speculate
that there is a difference in perception of gender roles between the
denominations, however, the relatively small sample sizes of Catho-
lic priests and female ministers do not allow for this analysis. Further
54 JOURNAL OF RELIGION & ABUSE
Notes: High number in means equals greater level of responsibility. M refers to the means and SD refers to the
standard deviations.
Means of variables in the same row that share a letter in their superscript are not significantly different by Tukey's
HSD.
Our society today seems more complex with a relatively fluid family
structure, greater stress, changing gender roles, and seemingly more in-
cidents of violence. Many people often do not have a strong support
system within their families or extended families, especially in our tran-
sient society. The church then often becomes a place of refuge for fami-
lies, a place for the wounded and broken-hearted. To give comfort
and healing, the church would need to bridge the gap between the sec-
ular world and the spiritual world. By working collaboratively with
Sue Wong Gengler and Jerry W. Lee 55
community agencies, the church can help bring about spiritual, physical
and emotional healing to their parishioners.
The results in this study suggest that a ministers degree of adherence
to fundamentalist religious belief and sometimes their gender may in-
fluence their perceptions of and interventions with battered women.
Among the ministers, significant differences were found in the areas of
fundamentalist religious beliefs, breadth of definition of wife abuse, fe-
males rights/worth and male headship. It appears that fundamentalist
religious belief has a significant effect on the breadth of definition, male
headship and females rights. It also impacts whether or not ministers
ask women about spouse abuse. The greater the ministers adherence to
fundamentalist religious belief, the narrower their definition of wife
abuse, greater adherence to male headship and greater belief in myths of
spouse abuse. The results are not suggesting that ministers who hold
fundamentalist religious belief are harmful to battered women or in-
effective in helping battered women. Ministers have often sacrificed
greatly to take up the call of the ministry. They are on-call 24 hours a
day, seven days a week to meet the needs of their parishioners. Minis-
ters with fundamentalist religious beliefs may be resistant to discussing
societal issues or working with secular agencies. But there are areas
where they cannot meet the needs of their parishioners. It may be neces-
sary to set aside religious differences to form collaborative relation-
ships in the community to mutually benefit each other in addressing this
issue of spouse abuse. There are battered women who want spiritual
guidance but use counseling services in secular agencies. The coun-
selors there may not be able to address the spiritual issues. It would be
helpful for these agencies to have ministers they can refer the women to
receive the spiritual guidance. Ministers can help train social workers
and counselors regarding major spiritual concerns that battered women
may have in facing abuse. Counselors/therapists can train ministers in
areas of crisis intervention, the dynamics of abusive relationships, rec-
ognizing signs of abuse, etc.
It would be important for the ministers to examine whether or not
there are components within their religious beliefs that may become
barriers to them in obtaining more information about abuse and learning
appropriate interventions. It would be helpful for ministers to be aware
that adherence to strict/traditional gender roles may prevent them from
having a clear understanding of spouse abuse and asking women about
spouse abuse. A lack of understanding or absence of discussion about
abuse within the church may inhibit battered women and batterers from
disclosing their abusive situations and seeking help.
56 JOURNAL OF RELIGION & ABUSE
REFERENCES
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ward attributions about incest. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 40: 210-16.
Alsdurf, J., and P. Alsdurf. (1989). Battered into submission. Christianity Today, 33:
24-27.
Ammerran, N.T. (1970). Southern Baptists and the new Christian right. Review of Re-
ligious Research, 32: 313-231.
Banikiotes, P. G. and T. V. Merluzzi. (1981). Impact of counselor gender and coun-
selor sex role orientation on perceived counselor characteristics. Journal of Coun-
seling Psychology, 28: 342-48.
Beech, L.A. (1970). Denominational affiliation and styles of authority in pastoral
counseling. Scientific Study of Religion, 9: 245-6.
58 JOURNAL OF RELIGION & ABUSE
Weaver, A.J., H.G. Koenig, and D.B. Larson. (1997). Marriage and family therapists
and the clergy: A need for clinical collaboration, training, and research. Journal of
Marital and Fmily Therapy, 23: 13.
Weaver, A. (1993). Psychological trauma: What clergy need to know. Pastoral Psy-
chology, 41: 385-408. Cited in Nason-Clark, N. (2000). Making the sacred safe:
Woman abuse and communities of faith. Sociology of Religion, 61: 349.
Weaver, A. (1992). Working with potentially dangerous persons: What the clergy need
to know. Pastoral Psychology, 40: 313-323.
Wong Gengler, S. (2001). An evaluation of the transitional housing programs. A work-
ing report prepared for the State Department of Health Services, Maternal and Child
Health Branch, Domestic Violence Section. Sacramento: CA.
Received: 05/01
Revised: 08/01
Accepted: 09/01
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