Discrimination, Church Support, Personal Mastery, and Psychological Distress Among Black People in the United States

Objective This study used the stress process model to test the mediating effects of personal mastery and moderating effects of church-based social support on the relationship between everyday discrimination and psychological distress across three age groups of African American and Afro-Caribbean adults. Methods Using a national sample of 5008 African Americans and Afro-Caribbean adults from the National Survey of American Life Study, this study employs structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships between everyday discrimination, personal mastery, church-based social support, and psychological disorders. Results Everyday discrimination was an independent predictor of psychiatric disorders across all groups. Group- and age-specific comparisons revealed significant differences in the experience of everyday discrimination and psychiatric disorders. Mastery was a partial mediator of the relationship between discimination and psychiatric disorder among Afro-Caribbeans while church support was a significant moderator only among the young and older African Americans. Implications: Together, our study findings provide useful first steps towards developing interventions to reduce the adverse psychological impacts of everyday discrimination on African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans. Intervention efforts such as individual psychotherapy aimed to improve Afro-Caribbean individuals’ sense of mastery would be a partial solution to alleviating the adverse effects of discrimination on their psychological health.

10-Year Study of Christian Church Support for Domestic Violence Victims: 2005-2015

Religious beliefs play a significant role in the lives of victims of domestic violence. Victims find strength in their faith and would rather endure the violence at all costs to keep a family or a marriage together, than to compromise their faith by leaving. This 10 –year study explored the climate of support for victims of domestic violence among Christian clergy and church members between 2005 and 2015. Using a convenience sample, surveys were sent out to congregations in the Upper Midwest in 2005 and 2015. The survey included demographics; two items measuring perception of domestic violence in the congregation and community; six Likert Scale items regarding agreement with statements concerning leaving an abusive marriage; four “Yes–No” items regarding the impact of faith in leaving, support of the congregation, community resources, and clergy as counselors. The clergy’s survey had the same questions plus open-ended questions about their skills in counseling victims, their congregation’s support for victims, community resources, and beliefs that could impact a victim’s choice in leaving. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, simple frequencies, and bivariate correlations. Narrative data were analyzed using content analysis. The results of this study indicated that change is slow. Members want their clergy to become more educated in counseling and in speaking about domestic violence from the pulpit. Clergy felt comfortable in making referrals for professional counseling, while the majority of members would prefer counseling with their pastor if they were in a violent relationship. Both clergy and members want to create a safe and supportive environment for victims/survivors of violent relationships. Findings from this study exemplify the need for pastors to remove the silence about domestic violence in their congregations and address the misunderstood social religious beliefs that may bind a victim to the violence.

Obesity Treatment in African American Churches: Current Treatment Targets and Preferences among Parishioners

Obesity is prevalent among African Americans, and church-based weight management programs may help address this public health issue. To develop more effective interventions, a survey was administered to members of a large, African American faith-based organization that assessed weight management intervention targets and preferences. Respondents ( N = 1,439) represented the Midwestern and Southern United States. Mean body mass index was 30.8 ± 9.2 kg/m2, and 82.5% of respondents were overweight/obese. The majority (65.0%) wanted a weight management intervention conducted with the church and preferred an in-person (69.0%), group-based (68.0%) program that meets weekly for one hour or less (72%) and addresses identified barriers including access to healthy foods, childcare, and physical activity support. Church support was linked to better dietary quality and higher physical activity among parishioners ( p’s ≤ 0.02), suggesting church support may be important for healthy eating and exercise. This study provides a clear path forward for developing and delivering weight loss interventions within African American churches.

EPITHETS AS A CHARACTERISTIC MEANS OF ADDRESSEE IN PANEGYRICS OF THE XVII CENTURY

The article analyzes epithets as one of the aestheticization means of baroque text, used to characterize panegyrics addressee of the XVII century. The functional load of epithets and their main source have been found out. As most individuals to whom panegyrics are devoted had high church status and/or have expressed themselves in matters of faith and church support, the epithets of religious orientation prevail. A review of epithets compatibility is made, which is divided into direct and indirect according to the addressee. The epithets of direct compatibility are mainly correlated with the name of the addressee or his metaphorical characteristic. Indirect compatibility occurs when epithets do not form a phrase with the name of the addressee, but characterize its virtues on a semantic level. Also, an analysis scheme of epithets variable compatibility with the words in panegyrics of the XVII century is given. In accordance with the text-centric principle, the article presents the epithetical characteristics of specific addressees in comparison with other texts (panegyrics or sermons of the XVII century). The virtues of panegyric addressees, mainly clerics, were determined based on the analyzed text material (Mykhailo Rohoza, Yelysei Pletenetskyi, Petro Mohyla, Arsenii Zhelyborskyi, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachnyi). The analysis of the epithets shows that the mental space of the Baroque conditioned the epithetical characteristics of the panegyric addressees of the ХVІІ century, emphasizing such constants as piety, the defense of faith, devotion to faith and a church, justice, patronage, mercy, leniency, strength of character, etc. Thus, the specificity of epithets in panegyrics is defined by the religious discourse of the Baroque times. Holy Scripture as a source of epithets guaranteed the authoritativeness of the characteristics attributed to the addressees of high church status (in panegyrics and sermons). Baroque innovations of epithets are in reinterpretation, creation of new meanings.

Justice and Demonstration of Christian Principles: Why churchgoers support Fair Trade

From the outset, church support for Fair Trade has been encouraged by what Cloke et al. have termed the Fair Trade ‘evangelists.’ 1 These church-based Fair Trade activists have promoted the concept to their congregations, and to the wider community, in a vocal and determined manner. This article examines the motivation of Fair Trade ‘evangelists’ and how they articulate the connection between Fair Trade and their Christian faith. In the face of criticism and indifference, why do these individuals persist? Drawing on my research interviews with nineteen church-based Fair Trade activists, I identify two clear findings. Firstly, that the activists view support for Fair Trade as an integral part of the work for justice, and secondly, that the action that they carry out for Fair Trade provides an opportunity to demonstrate the outworking of core Christian principles. The activists position support for Fair Trade as central to their faith and view it as contributing to the fulfilment of the core mission of the church.

ADDRESSING SOCIAL ISOLATION OF OLDER ADULTS: THE COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE AND CONTRIBUTION

This presentation will discuss the Reducing Isolation of Seniors Collective (RISC), a collaboration of three organizations that have implemented nine projects to address social isolation for rural and urban older adults in Saskatchewan, Canada. A survey was completed with the purpose of identifying community-level awareness, knowledge and perspectives on the extent of social isolation of older adults in their communities. Key variables of interest included contributors to social isolation of older adults, barriers to overcoming social isolation, and community efforts and promising assets for addressing social isolation of older adults in their own communities. To develop an understanding of the extent to which respondents are involved with older adults, the survey asked respondents to report how often they supported, observed, advocated for, and/or interacted with seniors. The 271 respondents identified their roles in the community as human service professionals, healthcare professionals, program facilitators, community leaders, organization members, and community volunteers. Three-quarters of respondents reported that they were involved with seniors at least daily or weekly. While 75.3% believed that social isolation of older adults was “somewhat” or “very” common, almost one-half (41.2%) of respondents believed there was not general awareness of social isolation of older adults by other members in their community. Over one-half of the respondents mentioned community programming (55.7%), friends and neighbours (63.1%), and volunteers (57.2%) as community assets that can reduce isolation of older adults. Respondents reported examples of promising interventions in their communities: church support, library programs, transportation service, visiting programs, advocacy groups, and information sessions.