Department of Psychology, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, USA.
Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, 250 Mills Godwin Life Sciences Building, Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA.
J Relig Health. 2021 Apr;60(2):1230-1247. doi: 10.1007/s10943-020-01086-5. Epub 2020 Sep 17.
In many ways, clergy (i.e., religious leaders including pastors, ministers) are a high-risk population. In their efforts to ensure the spiritual well-being of their congregations, clergy may neglect their own well-being and be unaware of the potentially detrimental effects that their work has on their health. The purpose of this study was to add to the growing knowledge base about how clergy perceive the relationship between their work and their well-being, the strategies they use to recover from their work, and the ways they balance work and nonwork areas of their lives. This qualitative study explores these areas to further understand the nature of clergy work and recovery from work. Clergy (N = 332) were asked to respond to a set of open-ended prompts related to their perceptions of work interference with health, and strategies at and outside of work they use to manage work and nonwork demands. The present study sheds light on recovery strategies (i.e., self-care practices) and practices clergy may use to successfully manage demands in the work and nonwork areas of their lives. Specifically, prioritizing, personal time (e.g., time spent in hobbies), and physical activities emerged as common strategies and practices. Our results have the potential to guide researchers in how to design interventions aimed at assisting individuals in this at-risk population.
在许多方面，神职人员（即包括牧师、部长在内的宗教领袖）属于高风险人群。为了确保会众的精神福祉，神职人员可能会忽视自己的健康，也没有意识到他们的工作可能对他们的健康产生潜在的不利影响。本研究的目的是增加关于神职人员如何看待工作与健康之间关系的知识基础，了解他们在工作中恢复的策略，以及他们平衡工作和非工作生活领域的方式。这项定性研究探讨了这些领域，以进一步了解神职人员工作的性质和从工作中恢复的过程。研究要求 332 名神职人员对与他们对工作干扰健康的看法相关的一系列开放式提示做出回应，并回答他们在工作中和工作之外用于管理工作和非工作需求的策略。本研究揭示了恢复策略（即自我保健实践）以及神职人员可能用于成功管理工作和非工作领域需求的实践。具体来说，优先考虑、个人时间（例如，用于爱好的时间）和体育活动是常见的策略和实践。我们的研究结果有可能指导研究人员如何设计干预措施，以帮助这一高危人群中的个体。
