The Church as a Social Support for Women: Perspectives of Female Members of Selected Seventh-day Adventist Churches

<p><em>Problem</em>. The subject of social support and its role in health and well-being ofindividuals has become an important topic to many researchers. This study was designed to discover to what extent female members of Seventh-day Adventist churches perceive their church as providing them with social support.</p> <p><em>Method. </em> The instrument used was the Social Provision Scale which measures six aspects of social support--attachment, guidance, nurture, reliable alliance, social integration, and worth. Scores from the 99 White and 48 African American women were compared for each of the six aspects on the basis of ethnicity, age, and marital status using Analysis of Variance.</p> <p><em>Results</em>. In comparing the women on the basis of ethnicity, the Black women had a higher perception of their church as a provider of social support. Among the different age groups, older women scored higher than the young or middle aged. Married women also had a greater perception of receiving social support than single women.</p> <p><em>Conclusions</em>. The women surveyed appeared to have a rather high perception of their church as a provider of social support. However, there may be other factors in their lives which are responsible for their feelings of well-being.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Leadership PhD

Year

2000

Author dc:creator

• Greenidge, Norma

Contributors dc:contributor

• James A. Tucker
• Wilfred G. A. Futcher
• Leona G. Running

• Christian Denominations and Sects
• Religion
• Women's Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations/406

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.andrews.edu:dissertations-1405