Interaction of Religion, Family, and Society

• Between Sundays: A Case Study of a Religious Organization Influence on Korean Immigrant Adult Learning
  Presented by: Byoungchul Joseph Jun, Hye-Sun Ro

• The Silent Exodus of 2nd Generation Chinese Americans in Chinese Churches
  Presented by: Peter Lim, Karen Quek

• Stress and Life Satisfaction of Children of Clergy: A Retrospective Study
  Presented by: Cynthia B. Wilson, Carol A. Darling

• Emotion Work and Couples’ Religion
  Presented by: Christopher G. Ellison, Xiaohe Xu

Abstracts

Between Sundays: A Case Study of a Religious Organization Influence on Korean Immigrant Adult Learning

Presented by: Byoungchul Joseph Jun, Hye-Sun Ro

Ethnic immigrant churches play important roles in the acculturation and adjustment process of immigrants may feel very uncomfortable in their host country. Often churches serve as community resources for the immigrants. In today's rapidly changing cultural milieu, becoming lifelong learners enables people to cope with these changes constructively. This study will emphasize the importance of adult learning, which has been neglected for a long time, especially by the Korean immigrant community. Its goal is to stimulate the local churches to be aware of how important they are in terms of providing a secure environment for adult education, and also to be aware of their function as a teaching/learning community to raise the level of awareness for the importance of adult learning for immigrant society.

The Silent Exodus of 2nd Generation Chinese Americans in Chinese Churches

Presented by: Peter Lim, Karen Quek

The purpose of this study is to focus on how the dynamics of the Chinese family system define and change the relational patterns and boundaries in the Chinese church, thus impacting the ways the ABC generation is integrated. It is the nature of the Chinese church that family matters. The Chinese church operates like an extended family or like a clan. In many extended families, children are not raised solely by their parents, but are cared for by a wide range of adults (grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, wet nurses). Likewise, as a family system, the Chinese church is a complex organization with multi-generational and multi-cultural components. Therefore the effectiveness of the Chinese church in integrating the ABC generations must be examined within the relationship patterns of the Chinese family system.To address the silent exodus of its second and future generations, the Chinese church must understand the dynamic of family system, and attend to the cultural and generational diversities arising from both the "older mindset" of immigrant Chinese and the assimilation patterns of the ABCs. Herein lies the challenge: it is far easier for the Chinese church to look at the silent exodus as a problem of the Americanization of the younger generation-a problem to be fixed-than to see its need to be transformed inwardly as a church. This study contributes to the understanding of the ways Chinese churches would respond to changing and contradictory cultural settings and ideologies of ABC generation.

Stress and Life Satisfaction of Children of Clergy: A Retrospective Study

Presented by: Cynthia B. Wilson, Carol A. Darling

This study examined stressors that adult clergy children experienced during childhood, and how coping resources and sense of coherence affected satisfaction with life as adolescents and as adults. Compared to a sample of non-clergy children, clergy children experienced greater levels of stress, lower sense of coherence, and less life satisfaction as adolescents. Using a model based on family stress theory, path analysis indicated that sense of coherence had the greatest total effect on life satisfaction as adolescents, whereas life satisfaction as adolescents provided the greatest total effect on life satisfaction as adults. Several implications for research and practice were provided.

Emotion Work and Couples’ Religion

Presented by: Christopher G. Ellison, Xiaohe Xu

Using data from the National Survey of Religion and Family Life (NSRFL), this study explores the linkages between couples' religiousness and their "emotion work." Results from seemingly-unrelated regression models indicate that four aspects of couples' religiousness, joint regular attendance at religious services, shared spiritual beliefs, relationship sanctification, and in-home devotional activities, are significantly associated with the frequency of couples' emotion work. That is, couples' joint religious activities and sameness foster their expressions of love, kindness, or compliments and help avoid criticism. These findings corroborate the salutary effects of religion on different dimensions of relationship quality as documented in previous studies.