• Pilot Testing the Marriage Garden with Faith Leaders
  Presented by: James P. Marshall, H. Wallace Goddard

• Are You My Mother? Evangelical Perceptions on Maternal God Images
  Presented by: Julie A. Zaloudek

• Thankful Prayers and Faithful Hearts: The Relationship between Prayers of Gratitude and Infidelity
  Presented by: Preston Charles Brown, Nathan M. Lambert, Frank D. Fincham

• Church-based Social Capital and Racial Socialization in African American Families
  Presented by: Cindy L. Lilly, Andrea G. Hunter, Anne C. Fletcher

Abstracts

Pilot Testing the Marriage Garden with Faith Leaders

Presented by: James P. Marshall, H. Wallace Goddard

Evidence suggests that few marriage and couples programs are based on a solid empirical foundation.  The purpose of this study was to contribute to the process of building and validating an empirically-based marriage curriculum.  Specifically, we sought to provide preliminary validation for a marriage curriculum based on the Marriage and Couples Education Model.  The curriculum was pilot tested with a group of faith leaders. Participants indicated significant knowledge gain and behavior change. The steps reported in this study provide encouragement for this model and curriculum as well as guidelines for creating evidence-based marriage curricula in the future.

Are You My Mother? Evangelical Perceptions on Maternal God Images

Presented by: Julie A. Zaloudek

This study examines the perceptions and ambiguities of Evangelicals around the image of God as mother, including their perceptions of God's traits that are typically associated with mothers, Evangelicals' willingness or unwillingness to label God in feminine terms, their experience of relating to God as a maternal figure, and deconstruction of the ambiguities and conflict inherent in the God as mother image. Attention to the sources of their God images (e.g. Sunday School) and experiences as human parents and children were also considered. Hermeneutic Theory and Symbolic Interactionism provided lenses for designing the study and interpreting data.

Thankful Prayers and Faithful Hearts: The Relationship between Prayers of Gratitude and Infidelity

Presented by: Preston Charles Brown, Nathan M. Lambert, Frank D. Fincham

This study examines the relationship of gratitude, as expressed in prayer, and infidelity.  In Study 1 (n=67) participants completed a self-reported measure of gratitude in prayer and then completed a confederated task involving attractive alternatives.  Results indicate that those who prayed with more gratitude were more likely to mention having a boyfriend or girlfriend, thus shielding their relationship from attractive alternatives.  Study 2 (n=22) objectively coded prayers for gratitude content and examined their relationship with a 9-item infidelity measure.  Results indicate that those who pray with more gratitude are less likely to commit infidelity.

Church-based Social Capital and Racial Socialization in African American Families

Presented by: Cindy L. Lilly, Andrea G. Hunter, Anne C. Fletcher

This paper examines the associations between maternal racial socialization and church-based network closure and the moderating effects of social class. The sample includes 132 African American mothers and their fifth grade children (mean age 10.3) who were interviewed face-to-face in their homes. The associations between church-based network closure and racial socialization varied by type of message. Church-based network closure was positively associated with spiritual coping but was not moderated by social class. However, associations between church-based network closure and preparation for bias and cultural survival were moderated by social class.