Is There a Crisis in Clergy Health?: Reorienting Research Using a National Sample

Abstract

Are religious leaders unusually unhealthy? This question has long occupied scholars interested in the study of religious institutions, and a significant body of research has examined the causes, correlates, and effects of poor health among clergy. In this study, we aimed to: (1) outline the development of, and bias inherent to, the scholarly understanding of clergy health over the past 50 years; (2) test, using a recently collected nationally representative sample of clergy, the standing assumption that clergy are an especially unhealthy vocational group, specifically in terms of depression, obesity, and self‐rated health; and (3) identify the major correlates of health among clergy using these data. Contrary to the recent tenor of scholarly research on this subject, our research revealed that clergy are not a particularly unhealthy group. We suggest potential pathways forward to ameliorate the bias inherent in the research into clergy well‐being.

Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Seminarians: Personal Experiences of Trauma and Implications for Pastoral Well-Being and Ministerial Training

“…The mental health and well-being of the clergy has been of interest to scholars of religion, religious organizations, and occupations for many years (Carroll, 2006;Ellison et al, 2010;Fichter, 1987;Holleman, 2023;Holleman & Eagle, 2023;Meisenhelder & Chandler, 2001;Miles et al, 2011;Rossetti, 2011;Wells, 2013). Mainline Protestant clergy, in particular, evidence higher rates of elevated anxiety and depressive symptoms compared with the general population (Edwards et al, 2020;Holleman & Eagle, 2023;Proeschold-Bell & Byassee, 2018). Similar patterns may exist among the Roman Catholic clergy (Edwards et al, 2020;Knox et al, 2005).…”

Prevalence of obesity in religious clergy in the United States: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…While there were no significant differences between clergy and the general population before 2005, by 2021, our analysis revealed a large, statistically significant difference between predicted clergy obesity prevalence (45.1%, [95% CI: 41.3–48.9]) and the predicted obesity prevalence of US adults who were in the labor force and aged 20–80 (35.3% [95% CI: 33.2–37.4]). This adds important context to a recent study that did not find a statistically significant difference between national obesity prevalence in clergy in 2019–20 and a matched population sample 10 . It is likely that this study lacked sufficient sample size to detect a significant difference.…”

When Shepherds Shed: Trajectories of Weight-Related Behaviors in a Holistic Health Intervention Tailored for US Christian Clergy

“…Although all four messages were developed in the Methodist cultural language and preached to participants in sermons at the workshops, further confirmatory research is needed to tease apart the pathways through which three messages motivate the participants toward healthy behaviors. Our sample was exclusively United Methodist clergy in NC, which limits the generalizability of our findings, especially beyond mainline Protestant clergy in the US (Holleman & Eagle, 2023 ).…”