Perceptions of promoting physical health by selected Christian leaders: A multi-denominational study
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Background and Purpose: Church-based health promotion programs have the potential to reach a large portion of the population due the number of Americans who ascribe to Christianity. Involvement and support from church leaders has been identified as a key factor in the success of health promotion programs in churches. However, little is known about the perceptions that leaders of Christian churches have on physical health, the promotion of physical health in their churches, or the factors that facilitate or inhibit their decision to promote physical health. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the decision-making process used by Christian leaders to promote physical health. \nMethods: A grounded theory approach was chosen for this study. Additionally, the Theory of Planned Behavior was used to guide the development of select focus group discussion questions in order to determine if the constructs of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control could potentially influence the participants’ decision to promote physical health in their churches. A purposeful sample of 33 leaders from various Christian denominations, ethnicities, and geographical locations within the southern United States were recruited to participate in one of five focus groups. A semi-structured focus group discussion guide was used to elicit participants’ perception of physical health, perception of the role of the Christian church in physical health promotion, perceived benefits to promoting physical health, views on member reactions, barriers to promoting physical health, and suggestions to increase member acceptance. Focus group discussion audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding. \nResults: Five themes were identified as factors that influence the promotion of physical health in the Christian church by church leaders: 1) conflict between known evidence of health benefits and the role of the Christian church in promoting physical health, 2) time and priority as inhibitors to physical health promotion, 3) lack of content knowledge and expertise as inhibitors to promoting physical health, 4) fear of offending members as an inhibitor of promoting physical health, 5) factors that would facilitate implementing a physical health promotion program. Three hypotheses were then generated from the themes for use in future research: 1) Educating leaders of Christian churches on the topic of physical health and how to translate health related information to the members of their churches will likely increase their self-confidence to address physical health in their churches. 2) Since leaders of Christian churches are expected to lead by example, modeling healthy behaviors would likely enhance members’ acceptance of the promotion of physical health in their church. 3) Basing physical health promotion on Biblical Scriptures would likely legitimize physical health promotion in the church, thus making it a priority with added time allocation. Conclusion: Understanding the factors that inhibit or facilitate the decision of leaders of Christian churches to promote physical health in their church is necessary in order to design targeted interventions for this population. Addressing leaders’ perception of the role of the Christian church in promoting physical health, barriers to time and prioritizing, lack of content knowledge and expertise, and church member acceptance may be necessary for increasing the involvement of church leaders in the promotion of physical health in the Christian church.
Author: Tiffany McAllister
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2308364017