African American Clergy Involvement in Marriage Preparation

Marital stability has been linked to multiple social and economic advantages, particularly for African Americans. Clergy provide the majority of marriage preparation in the United States, but historically African American denominations have not been sampled systematically. To address this issue, we...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family issues 2016-04, Vol.37 (6), p.855-876
Main Authors: Wilmoth, Joe D., Blaney, Abigail D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Attitudes
Clergy
Communication
Couples
Family stability
Marriage
Perceptions
Religious congregations
Skills
Teaching
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Marital stability has been linked to multiple social and economic advantages, particularly for African Americans. Clergy provide the majority of marriage preparation in the United States, but historically African American denominations have not been sampled systematically. To address this issue, we conducted an exploratory survey investigating African American clergy members’ behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions about providing marriage preparation. Data were collected from 141 members of the seven primarily African American denominations and compared with 793 clergy from the 15 largest, predominantly White, congregations. African American clergy were significantly more likely than clergy in the comparison group to say they addressed premarital content effectively, say they utilized a skills-based approach to teaching communication, require a longer waiting period, more sessions, more homework assignments, and consider marriage preparation a valuable part of their ministry and to believe that couples had benefited from marriage preparation.
ISSN:0192-513X
1552-5481
DOI:10.1177/0192513X14525619