Stress among Clergy: An Exploratory Study on South African Anglican Priests

Abstract

In a pilot study 10 male Anglican priests were interviewed individually about their roles, experiences of stress, impact of their work on family life, and problems of working for the church. Items for a questionnaire were formulated on the basis of this information. One hundred and ten usable sets of data (44% return rate) were factor analysed, resulting in three stressor scales: Person-role Conflict, Quantitative Workload and Role Insufficiency. The first two scales correlated significantly with both the Frequency and Intensity scores of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The first and third scales correlated significantly with Antonovsky's short Sense of Coherence scale. None correlated significantly with Rosenbaum's Self-control Schedule. The burnout mean could be classified as ‘moderate’.