Resilience and Wellbeing in a Sample of Singaporean Clergy

Pastoral adjustment studies have focused much of their attention upon the stressors and social support systems of clergy; recent studies have suggested the importance of resiliency in the way pastors interpret their experiences. This study explored the role of dispositional hope and sense of coherence in pastoral wellbeing. Fifty-eight Singaporean clergy completed surveys that included measures of congregational demand and support, sense of coherence, hope, and three outcome measures assessing wellbeing. Demand was not significantly correlated with any of the outcomes. Hope and coherence, however, were significantly associated with all three outcomes. An exploratory hierarchical regression analysis predicting a composite of the three wellbeing measures suggests that sense of coherence is the most salient predictor.