Clergy marital satisfaction as predicted by work/family stress

The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive power of 5 stressors (i.e., mobility, compensation, family boundaries, expectations, social support) with marital conventionalization on clergy marital satisfaction.

The sample of this study included 86 (n=172) randomly selected clergy couples representing 5 denominations (e.g., Southern Baptist Convention, Lutheran Missouri Synod, Church of God Cleveland, Tennessee, Seventh Day Adventist, and American Baptist Church). Sociodemographic data indicated that the average age of the clergy person was 43, and his spouse was 41, had been married about 19 years, had an average of 2 children, and had been in the ministry as a professional for about 16 years. The criteria for participation in this study were that the clergy person be male, be married to a nonclergy person, be serving as an ordained pastor in a denominationally affiliated parish, and has at least one child under 18 living at home.

In the present study, regression analyses indicated that the model predicting marital satisfaction was significant. In the reduced model marital conventionalization and expectations were the best predictors of marital satisfaction. When a reduced model containing expectations being separated into congregational and familial expectations was examined, it was found that congregational expectations was a significant predictor of clergy marital satisfaction. Additional regression analyses were also performed using sociodemographic variables as predictors of clergy marital satisfaction. Church size, educational level, length of marriage, and number of moves since entering the ministry were significant predictors in the reduced model of marital satisfaction.