CLERGY AS GATEKEEPERS: NETWORKS OF COUNSELING AND REFERRAL (CAREGIVERS, PASTORAL COUNSELING, RELIGION)

MARVIN JOHN MCDONALD, Purdue University

Abstract

A structured interview was developed on the basis of field research and a review of literature on clergy as mental health gatekeepers. A team of interviewers recruited 181 clergy from 93 percent of the congregations in a single community. The target community included a large midwestern university. The respondents represented a diversity of religious traditions, leadership roles, and community settings. Qualitative information obtained during the study suggested that the clergy emphasized the social context of people in need when formulating referral decisions. Network analyses revealed a disjoint social structure which displayed a relatively large number of intergroup relationships involving individuals. Consequently, pluralism in the religious community was evident in group processes while unity among the religious leaders was displayed through individual contacts. Analyses of the link relationships showed faith struggles and marital problems to be primary needs which respondents dealt with through the resources of clergy networks. Respondents tended to nominate clergy from their own or similar religious traditions as resources for pastoral counseling issues. A series of multiple regression analyses described patterns of counseling and referral processes. Preferences for certain referral targets correlated strongly with reported rates of referral and counseling. Respondents clearly sent people with different problems to selected counseling resources in order to find appropriate kinds of help. Many background characteristics of clergy and the congregations they served were related to clergy job definition and to referral rates. The overlap among the background variables suggested that the range of features explored in the study represented different aspects of the same causal processes. The size of the congregation served and the religious tradition of the respondent were the background variables most clearly and strongly associated with gatekeeper processes. The evidence obtained suggested a complex relationship between measures of clergy role definition and referral rates. Simplistic conceptual models were clearly inappropriate for the data. The pattern of results described clergy gatekeepers who performed a variety of functions in diverse manners in response to their psychosocial context. The design of the study highlighted ecological issues, social network patterns, and multiple levels of analysis. Methodological limitations and future research possibilities were discussed.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Psychotherapy

COinS