Mental health and the pastor’s wife: how does the pastor’s wife manage life stressors and apply coping strategies to support her emotional well-being?

ABSTRACT

This study aims to explore how eight pastors’ wives of the Pentecostal denomination in the UK, manage stressful situations and apply coping strategies to support their emotional well-being. A qualitative interpretative phenomenological approach was adopted to provide a comprehensive analysis of their personal lived experience. The study identified and explored four main themes: expectations perceived as burdensome, lack of support, relocation and impact on family and coping strategies applied for the support of well-being. The research found that coping strategies employed by participants may not be as useful and effective to cope with the demands of pastoral care, ministry, and stressful situations encountered. As this is an understudied area further research is required to unmask how female leaders in faith-based communities can be supported with their mental health and represented in research.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• emotional well-being
• stressors
• coping strategies
• pastor’s wife
• faith-based communities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was granted by The Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology (Approval Code: 15849). All participants had to give their informed consent prior to interviews commencing.