Record Details

Ministers' Wives, 1959-1962

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Field Value
 
Title Ministers' Wives, 1959-1962
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/X1BAWQ
 
Creator William Douglas
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description This study of women married to Protestant ministers examined various aspects of the wives' involvement in their husbands' vocation, and their own personal satisfaction and fulfillment as women, wives, and mothers.


After four waves of pretesting, piloting, and refining the instruments (1959-1960), a 70-item self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 7,978 ministers' wives, a one-in-twenty cross section of the population from 37 Protestant denominations. Approximately 60% (4,777 women) returned completed instruments in 1961. The primarily precoded questionnaire covered such topics as present church and community activities of husband and wife; demographic, geographic, and financial information; attitudes toward and satisfaction with spouse; and social obligations and activities related and unrelated to the ministry.


A second wave of data collected from 623 of these women included primarily open-ended responses on employment, home and family, personal growth and fulfillment, goals and values, and mental health. A third wave, with separate questionnaires for wives (N=411) and husbands (N=370), assessed values and goals, self and mate descriptions, pressure points, etc. The fourth and final wave evaluated patterns of involvement of husbands and wives (N=105). It examined priorities, frustrations, and satisfactions concerning church and family issues. Some of the third and fourth wave participants also completed the following standard measures: study of values, Myers-Briggs vocational inventory, Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). A related study of seminarians was conducted in 1962-1963 (N=110). Instruments used included an MMPI, Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank, and a Role Definition instrument. The study, entitled the Pilot Project Seminary Study, attempted to define the needs of seminarians, their wives and families in order to develop a guidance manual.


The Murray Research Archive holds most of the paper data from the four pilot studies, the four waves of data collection, and the related seminarians study.
 
Subject Social Sciences
 
Type survey, longitudinal