The disproportionate amount of deaths in the Black community, combined with the viral videos of the killing of Black bodies during 2020, placed a tremendous emotional burden on Black persons who have made it their life goal to care for the well-being of the Black community.
This has been and continues to be true for leaders within the Black church. Many Black persons report their preference for sharing their emotional pain with a religious leader over going to a mental health professional when suffering from mental illness (Adofoli & Ullman, 2014; Hays 2015).
As a result of justifiably high levels of medical mistrust in the Black community, Black pastors have long been the first responders to Black mental illness. One study revealed that close to two-thirds of Black pastors were engaged in pastoral counseling with persons suffering from suicidal thoughts (Payne, 2014). Given that most Black clergy and other ministry leaders (e.g. deacons, bible school teachers, choir directors, etc. ) have jobs outside of the church, caring for persons who may be struggling with mental illness can be exhausting and may result in not only burnout but secondary traumatic stress (Roggenbaum).
Which leaders are most vulnerable?
In a study of 124 Black clergy and ministry leaders, we found that over half of these African American church leaders endorsed experiencing moderate to severe levels of secondary traumatic stress. We also discovered that 28% of these leaders endorsed moderate to severe anxiety symptoms, 12% endorsed moderate to severe depressive symptoms, and 26.5% endorsed experiencing at least one of five symptoms of PTSD. Moreover, we found that these leaders report having slightly higher levels of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in their past than the average person in the Black community.
ACEs describe 10 different childhood experiences that, if they occur between birth and age 18, may have a detrimental effect on one’s physical and mental health well into adulthood. We found that church leaders with higher rates of ACEs (4 or more) were much more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, PTSD, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.
We also found that for church leaders with a higher number of ACEs, those who suffered from high levels of negative religious coping (i.e. questioning God’s love, or believing God is punishing them) during times of hardship had even greater chances of suffering from trauma and other mental illness. In other words, ministry leaders who wondered whether God had abandoned them or felt punished by God because of their lack of devotion were significantly more likely to suffer from trauma symptoms. This indicates that despite one’s public theology (i.e. what one preaches or teaches about God), one’s intrapersonal theology (i.e. what one believes in their heart and mind about God relating to them) has a more significant effect on one’s emotional wellbeing.
A second predictor of traumatic symptoms, for those who suffered from childhood adversity, was feeling as if their church was not emotionally supportive of them. Not surprisingly, the relationship that a leader has with her congregation has significant implications for her well-being.
What can be done to help
What we do know is that the relationship one has with their congregation has the potential to be healing despite one’s suffering from ACEs. Those who felt their congregations were emotionally supportive were less likely to suffer from traumatic symptoms despite experiencing painful events in childhood, even when they suffered from negative religious thoughts such as believing God was punishing them for their lack of devotion.
Conversely, ministry leaders who engage in positive religious coping (i.e. believe in God’s love for them in the midst of suffering) tend to suffer less trauma, even if they have suffered numerous childhood adversities.
And yet for leaders who had lower levels of positive religious coping, the perception of their congregation’s support was an even more significant predictor of their mental well-being. Finally, we found the practice of positive religious coping was so significant that it had the potential to compensate for the lack of emotional support from the congregation.
Eric M. Brown, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston University’s School of Medicine.
