Clergy stress: Seventh-day Adventist pastors in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan

This research utilized an expanded ABC-X model of family stress, one that incorporated the culture and boundary ambiguity constructs of the contextual approach as a paradigm to examine the outcomes of job-related stress experienced by the Seventh-day Adventist pastors in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. All together 89 Adventist pastors or 86.4% of the total pastoral workforce in the three regions participated in the 52 self-administered questionnaire survey. In addition, two focus groups made up of 15 pastors in Taiwan were utilized to generate descriptive data related to pastors and their families in the context of stressful situations. This research verified higher ministry demands would reduce pastor's personal wellbeing, higher levels of support resources available to pastors would reduce the effects of ministry demands, and the perception of the stressor events would more strongly correlate with the outcomes of the pastors' wellbeing than either the stressor events. This research has demonstrated the robustness of ABC-X model in the study of clergy stress from an ethnic cultural context and has expanded the research literature on clergy stress from a cross-cultural perspective. Furthermore, this research enhances our understanding of the function of social support, especially that of the family, as a significant predictor of the pastor's overall wellbeing. The study has demonstrated that high ministry demands may increase stress, but it may not always reduce life satisfaction and wellbeing; this research suggests that cultural interpretation and perception may contribute to this phenomenon. Finally, it is hoped that a cross-cultural sensitive framework conceptualized in this research will raise the levels of awareness among counselors and therapists to clergy and their families. Congregational and denominational leaders can also utilize these results to provide assistance and support to clergy and their families.