Christian clergy response to intimate partner violence: Attitudes, training, or religious views?

Belinda Richardson, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether clergy respond to intimate partner violence using a "marriage-first" or "safety-first" approach. A "marriage-first" approach focuses on keeping the marriage together, while a "safety-first" approach indicates a willingness to emphasize safety even if it ultimately ends the marriage. Clergy attitudes about women's roles, victim blaming attitudes, amount of training received, rating of training received, and their level of endorsement of fundamentalist beliefs were expected to influence clergy response. Self-administered surveys were sent to 268 clergy in the Midwest, but N = 151 surveys were used in the analysis. Clergy are from various religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, including male and female. A feminist perspective guided the methodology. Results reveal that using a vignette with intimate partner violence clergy respond in either a "marriage-first" approach or "safety-first" approach. Lethality of the violence did not make a significant difference in their response. Using multiple regression analyses the findings show that 49% percent of the variance in "marriage-first" was accounted for by race, victim blaming attitudes for spousal physical violence, fundamentalist beliefs, and traditional views of women's roles. Being African American, endorsing higher fundamentalist beliefs, having more traditional views of women's roles, and higher victim blaming attitudes for physical violence against women had a significant association with a "marriage-first" response. Further analysis of these variables identified a negative and significant correlation between being African American and having a M.Div. There were significant positive relationships between African Americans and being married, having traditional views of women's roles, and having higher fundamentalist beliefs. A "safety-first" approach was significantly associated with less years as clergy, and having less traditional views of women's roles. They accounted for 26% of the variance for "safety-first." This study identified two distinct ways that clergy respond to victims of intimate partner violence ("marriage-first" and "safety-first"), training did not affect either, fundamentalist beliefs affected a "marriage-first" response, while attitudes about women's roles (egalitarian vs. traditional) affected both responses. This study has application for practitioners who counsel victims of intimate partner violence, and training institutions in development of training for clergy.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Thomas, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Clerical studies|Psychology|Individual & family studies

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