An analysis of leadership style and life stressors on marital satisfaction among conservative evangelical seminary students

Abstract

This research analyzed leadership style and life stressors on marital satisfaction among seminary students at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The population consisted of three groups of students and their spouses. Those who were new students at seminary in the Fall of 2002, continuing students who have been at the seminary at least one year, and graduating students (December 2002 graduation). The total sample consisted of ninety-eight participants or forty-nine couples. All of the students were white, US citizen, Caucasian males.

The precedent literature reviewed three areas--leadership style, particularly transactional and transformational leadership; life stressors; and marital satisfaction, particularly as they relate to this population.

The forms and test instruments completed by the sample were an Agreement to Participate, a Demographic sheet, an Orthodox Belief Scale (determined if the participant was conservative rather than liberal in their religious belief), the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), the Seminary Student Stress Test (SSST), and the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (LWMAT).

The materials were scored and the data analyzed utilizing the SPSS computer program. The MLQ showed that the predominant style of student leadership was transformational. The highest areas of stress for couples were not having enough time, finances, and for the students, academic demands. Overall, marital satisfaction for the couples was high.

The statistical tests run on leadership style, life stressors, and marital satisfaction showed that transformational leadership and marital satisfaction correlated highly significantly (.01). Transformational leadership and laissez-faire leadership had a highly significant (.01) negative correlation. The ANOVA test was also run to determine if there was any difference between and within these tests, no significance was found here. T-tests comparing the means of student responses as compared to spouses came out significant for laissez-faire leadership. For the new, continuing and graduating students, their scores were analyzed by (ANOVA). The data and results from these tests are reported. Conclusions, implications, applications, and further research are suggested.