RT Article
T1 Relationships between Sabbath Observance and Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Health in Clergy
JF Pastoral psychology
VO 68
IS 2
SP 171
OP 193
A1 Hough, Holly
A1 Liu, Xin
A1 Proeschold-Bell, Rae Jean
A1 Turner, Elizabeth L.
A1 Weisner, Carl
A1 Yao, Jia
A2 Liu, Xin
A2 Proeschold-Bell, Rae Jean
A2 Turner, Elizabeth L.
A2 Weisner, Carl
A2 Yao, Jia
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1588235645
AB Keeping the Sabbath, that is, setting a day apart for rest and spiritual rejuvenation, has been related to better mental health and less stress in cross-sectional studies. However, for clergy, keeping Sabbath can be complicated by needing to work on Sundays and the round-the-clock nature of clergy work. Nevertheless, numerous studies demonstrating high depression rates in clergy populations suggest clergy need to attend to their mental health. Religious denomination officials interested in preventing depression in clergy may be tempted to recommend Sabbath-keeping, although recommending other forms of rest and rejuvenation, including connecting with others, is also possible. This study examined the relationships of Sabbath-keeping as well as multiple other forms of rest and rejuvenation (vacation, sleep, relaxing activities, and social support) to mental and physical health and spiritual well-being using survey data from 1316 United Methodist clergy. Appropriate regression analyses (logistic, linear, and Poisson) were used to determine which clergy were more likely to keep the Sabbath and examined the relationships between Sabbath-keeping and multiple well-being outcomes. Receiving more social support was strongly associated with Sabbath-keeping. Sabbath-keeping was not significantly related to mental or physical health, after adjusting for covariates such as social support, although Sabbath-keeping was significantly related to higher quality of life and spiritual well-being—the original purpose of Sabbath-keeping—in clergy. To adequately test whether Sabbath-keeping could promote mental health for clergy beyond other forms of rejuvenation, intervention studies are needed.
K1 Clergy
K1 Mental Health
K1 Physical Health
K1 Sabbath
K1 Social Support
K1 Spiritual well-being
DO 10.1007/s11089-018-0838-9