Steven J Sandage
Biographic Data
| ID | 156000 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven J Sandage |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven J |
| FAMILY NAME | Sandage |
| SIGNATURE | SANDAGE S J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9078-0810 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 88 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 288 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 88 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Spiritual Formation of Religious Leaders: An Analysis of The Association of Theological Schools’ Graduating Student Questionnaire Data
Recent research on mature alterity , or humbly engaging with others’ differentness, showed a negative relation with religiousness/spirituality. There were also mixed findings for the association between mature alterity and well-being. Using a sample ( N = 5,528; M age = 41.92; 55% male; 57% White) of graduating students at 151 North American institutions accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, we employed variable- and person-center…
Suffering, Trauma, and Relational Integration: Re-Envisioning Spiritual Care and Psychoanalysis in a Decolonial Age
Spiritual care is summoned by suffering—by ‘wounds’ that are psychological, relational, spiritual, embodied, and political at once. As disciplines continue to be entrenched and siloed amidst the growing sociopolitical tensions and global crises in a decolonial age, what is at stake is the ability to care for each suffering Other in their complexity. This article offers a selective genealogy and relational integration of psychoanalysis and spiritu…
Humility, Differentiation of Self, and Rorschach Assessment of Clergy Candidates in the USA: An Exploratory Study
Racial minority clients’ experiences of sociocultural issues in psychotherapy
Holding “Preciousness and Brokenness”: Spiritual Changes and Struggles of Rabbinical Students During the Israel-Hamas War Following October 7th
Trauma, Burnout, and Well-Being Among Chaplains and Clergy in the United States
Spiritual Formation Among Students at Christian Seminaries: Mature Alterity, Symptoms, and Well-Being
Mature alterity is a key marker of spiritual formation. We used person-centered data analytic techniques to empirically generate subgroups differentiated by their profile on dimensions of the relational spirituality model (RSM). Four RSM dimensions were derived from factor analytic techniques on fifty items from eight measures of religiousness/spirituality and self-regulatory strengths. We used a sample of students from eighteen North American se…
Discriminating the dimensions of humility: A validation study with religious identifying individuals
Burnout among spiritual leaders and mental health professionals: A relational spirituality model of care
The risks of burnout among helping professionals (e.g. mental health professionals, clergy, and chaplains) have been widely studied but were intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper builds upon existing research on burnout and offers an innovative framework using the relational spirituality model (RSM) to consider existential/spiritual, relational, and systemic dimensions that impact risks for burnout and pathways toward well-being. T…
Formation Experiences of First-Year Students at a Progressive Christian Seminary: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study
This study explored the question, “How are seminary students’ formation experiences shaped over their first year in seminary?” Research questions and goals were formulated through a collaborative practical theology approach with seminary leaders. First-year seminary students (n = 35) from a northeastern U.S. progressive Protestant seminary completed qualitative surveys across three time points during their first year of study. The qualitative que…
Humility among seminarian women: A qualitative study
Humility is a salient virtue for Christian formation with demonstrated relevance for religious leader effectiveness and well-being. However, humility is complex for religious leaders, as role-related factors promote and challenge healthy humility. Practicing healthy humility might be particularly complicated for religious leaders who hold non-dominant identities, such as women or Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Using reflexive the…
Seminary Students’ Perspectives on Their Formation Strengths and Vulnerabilities: A Mixed Method Qualitative Study
Contrasting Experiences: Gender Disparities in Spirituality, Character Strengths, Mental Health, and Social Justice among Next-Generation Religious Leaders
Despite female religious leaders' substantial historic and ongoing contributions worldwide, their experiences remain poorly understood in male-normative contexts, especially from an empirical perspective. This lack of understanding leads institutions to overlook heterogeneity and perpetuate male-normed formative experiences, with virtually no empirical studies investigating gender differences among religious leaders, particularly regarding mental…
Spiritual and Religious Competence in Couple Therapy Training: A Relational Spirituality Perspective
Despite evidence that spirituality and religion ( sr ) are significant dimensions of human diversity with relevance for mental health treatment, therapists often report feeling under-trained for sr engagement in psychotherapy. The emerging literature on sr competence and humility ( src / h ) predominantly focuses on individual treatment with less attention to expanded direct treatment approaches, such as couple therapy, where relational dynamics …
Burnout, racial trauma, and protective experiences of Black psychologists and counselors
Results from this study suggest that BMHPs may be more susceptible to burnout and race-based traumatic stress as a result of their work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Burnout, Trauma Impacts, and Well-Being Among Clergy and Chaplains: A Systematic Review and Recommendations to Guide Best Practice
Student Perspectives on Spiritual Formation at a Jewish Pluralistic Seminary: A Qualitative Study
Adverse Childhood Experiences, Religious Coping, and Congregational Support among Black Clergy and Religious Leaders
Limited studies have empirically investigated the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among Black clergy and religious leaders despite their status as helping professionals who are implicated in times of crisis. In light of cultural considerations that position African American churches as trusted institutions linking local communities of color with various social services, African American religious leaders are particularly implicated…
Latent Profiles of Seminary Students' Perceptions of Sense of Community Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic
Existing research on sense of community in educational contexts shows positive associations with well-being and negative associations with mental health symptoms. However, exploration of students' sense of community within the seminary context is minimal. Drawing on the relational spirituality model, which posits oscillating experiences of dwelling and seeking in a dialectical growth process, we framed sense of community as horizontal dwelling. W…
Disappointment in God and Relational Spirituality: Moderator Effects for Meditative Prayer
In recent years, there have been a number of studies exploring the positive and negative aspects of spirituality. While many studies have indicated spirituality has a generally positive influence in persons’ lives, people also experience negative effects associated with spiritual struggles. Studies have also suggested that spiritual practices such as prayer have the potential to mitigate the difficult and distressing aspects of spirituality. In t…
The Dimensions of Spirituality Inventory
The Dimensions of Spirituality Inventory (DSI) is a 50-item quantitative assessment of spirituality. Whereas “spirituality” has seemed to some to be too vague for research purposes, the DSI follows earlier qualitative research in showing that usage of the word points to an intelligible conceptual structure. Instead of defining spirituality and then operationalizing it, as most extant instruments do, the DSI defines and operationalizes 21 relative…
Compassion and Humility as Predictors of Justice and Diversity Commitments Among Seminary Faculty
(Re)Framing Resilience: A Trajectory-Based Study Involving Emerging Religious/Spiritual Leaders
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique circumstance for the study of resilience, and clergy resilience has garnered increased research attention due to greater recognition that religious/spiritual leaders are at risk for elevated levels of anxiety and burnout. We examined longitudinal patterns of change during the pandemic in a sample of emerging leaders (N = 751; Mage = 32.82; SD 11.37; 49.9% female; 59.8% White). In doing so, we offered a …
The Influence of Experiential Avoidance, Humility and Patience on the Association Between Religious/Spiritual Exploration and Well-Being
Religious/spiritual struggles and depression during Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in the global south: Evidence of moderation by positive religious coping and hope
Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships: II. Theoretical elaboration and measurement
The Virtues of Positive Psychology: The Rapprochement and Challenges of an Affirmative Postmodern Perspective
Toward a Multicultural Positive Psychology: Indigenous Forgiveness and Hmong Culture
The growing field of positive psychology is encouraging advances in the scientific research of developmental strengths and virtues like forgiveness. However, multicultural and indigenous psychology perspectives can raise valuable questions about positive psychology and the relationship between cultural particularity and virtues like forgiveness. In this article, the authors consider the meaning of virtue in psychology and then focus on the cultur…
Adult Attachment and Well-Being: Dimensions of Differentiation of Self as Mediators
Generativity, Relational Spirituality, Gratitude, and Mental Health: Relationships and Pathways
In this study, the authors investigated generativity strivings or commitments in relation to spirituality, spiritual transformation (ST), gratitude, and mental health in the educational training context of graduate-level students (N = 194) at a university-based theological seminary in North America. Relational spirituality was operationalized based on a relational theoretical model (Shults & Sandage, 2006 Shults, F. L. and Sandage, S. J. 2006. Tr…
(Re)Framing Resilience: A Trajectory-Based Study Involving Emerging Religious/Spiritual Leaders
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique circumstance for the study of resilience, and clergy resilience has garnered increased research attention due to greater recognition that religious/spiritual leaders are at risk for elevated levels of anxiety and burnout. We examined longitudinal patterns of change during the pandemic in a sample of emerging leaders (N = 751; Mage = 32.82; SD 11.37; 49.9% female; 59.8% White). In doing so, we offered a …
Distress and Satisfaction in Women Who Perceive that Their Male Partners Use Pornography: The Roles of Attitude, Religious Commitment and Conservative Religiosity
Qualitative studies suggest that women's attitudes and religiosity have an important role in their experience of their male partners' pornography use, but these factors have not been adequately studied. The present study examined the contributions of perceived frequency of male partners' solitary pornography use (PFREQ), women's attitudes toward their partners' pornography use, conservative religiosity, and religious commitment to women's pornogr…
Bowen Family Systems Theory and Spirituality: Exploring the Relationship Between Triangulation and Religious Questing
Intergenerational Suicide and Family Dynamics: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Case Study
Student Perspectives on Spiritual Formation at a Jewish Pluralistic Seminary: A Qualitative Study
Adverse Childhood Experiences, Religious Coping, and Congregational Support among Black Clergy and Religious Leaders
Limited studies have empirically investigated the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among Black clergy and religious leaders despite their status as helping professionals who are implicated in times of crisis. In light of cultural considerations that position African American churches as trusted institutions linking local communities of color with various social services, African American religious leaders are particularly implicated…
The Moderating Influence of Religiousness/Spirituality on Covid-19 Impact and Change in Psychotherapy
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a global surge in empirical research examining the influence of the pandemic on individuals' mental health symptoms and well-being. Within this larger literature is a rapidly growing literature on the associations among religiousness/spirituality, COVID-19 impact, symptoms and well-being. Largely absent from this literature is a specific research focus on psychotherapy clients, and the influence of religiousness/…
Relational Spirituality, Mature Alterity, and Spiritual Service among Ministry Leaders: An Empirical Study
Humility and Narcissism in Clergy: A Relational Spirituality Framework
Spirituality, social justice, and intercultural competence: Mediator effects for differentiation of self
Christian Counselors’ Resources for Multi-Cultural Understanding and Counseling
Seven resources are discussed that Christian counselors have to offer multi-cultural counseling and understanding: a viable epistemology, a sense of community, a universal story, a recognition of the supernatural, a paradigm for forgiveness, an appreciation for symbols, and a shared experience as a minority. Psychology's response to multi-cultural issues is parallel to the response of Western missionaries encountering cultural pluralism. Suggesti…
Empirical research on religion and psychotherapeutic processes and outcomes: A 10-year review and research prospectus
Empirical research on religion and psychotherapeutic processes and outcomes: A 10-year review and research prospectus
Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships: II. Theoretical elaboration and measurement
Seeking Forgiveness: Theoretical Context and an Initial Empirical Study
While research on granting forgiveness has exploded recently, no theoretical or empirical attention has been directed at seeking forgiveness. We lay a theoretical base for the study of seeking forgiveness and report our initial study bearing on the concept. We investigate the potential role of some personality and developmental factors that might promote seeking forgiveness. Students ( N = 232) who indicated having transgressed against a partner …
The Virtues of Positive Psychology: The Rapprochement and Challenges of an Affirmative Postmodern Perspective
Toward a Multicultural Positive Psychology: Indigenous Forgiveness and Hmong Culture
The growing field of positive psychology is encouraging advances in the scientific research of developmental strengths and virtues like forgiveness. However, multicultural and indigenous psychology perspectives can raise valuable questions about positive psychology and the relationship between cultural particularity and virtues like forgiveness. In this article, the authors consider the meaning of virtue in psychology and then focus on the cultur…
Longitudinal analyses of religious and spiritual development among seminary students
We conducted a longitudinal study of spiritual development among a sample of graduate-level seminary students (N = 119) at a religiously affiliated university in the Midwest. Seven longitudinal hypotheses were tested based on a relational model of spirituality (Shults & Sandage, 2006). Over time, we expected that the seminary context would facilitate increases in students’ questing, intrinsic religiosity, spiritual well-being, spiritual openness,…
Hermeneutic analysis of virtuous exemplar narratives of Cambodian-American Buddhists and Christians
Virtuous exemplars embody the virtues of a cultural community, a dynamic, contextual understanding that is best explored by critical hermeneutic analysis. In order to describe their lives and refine the mental-health treatment of Cambodian immigrants, 12 virtuous exemplars from a Cambodian-American Buddhist and 12 from a Cambodian-American Christian population were interviewed. Grounded theory and a mixed-methods analysis were used. Rigor-enhanci…
Bowen Family Systems Theory and Spirituality: Exploring the Relationship Between Triangulation and Religious Questing
Intergenerational Suicide and Family Dynamics: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Case Study
Forgiveness, spiritual instability, mental health symptoms, and well-being: Mediator effects of differentiation of self
Folk conceptions of virtue among Cambodian American Buddhists and Christians: A hermeneutic analysis
Differentiation of Self and Christian Spiritual Maturity: Social Science and Theological Integration
Differentiation of Self (DoS) is a social science construct that is useful for an integrative conceptualization of Christian spiritual maturity. Differentiated relationality has its theological grounding in the Trinity. This article outlines interdisciplinary perspectives in social science, cultural diversity, biblical data, systematic theology, and spiritual formation to suggest DoS as a Christian spiritual maturity construct. Practical applicat…
Relational Spirituality and Dispositional Forgiveness: A Structural Equations Model
The present study tested the associations between relational spirituality and dispositional forgiveness in an adult sample of Christian graduate students (N = 203). A relational model of spiritual dwelling and seeking (Wuthnow, 1998; Shults & Sandage, 2006) drawing on theology and social science was used to conceptualize this study of spiritual factors hypothesized to be positively and negatively associated with dispositional forgiveness. Results…
Quest and Spiritual Development Moderated by Spiritual Transformation
A relational model of spirituality and transformation (Shults & Sandage, 2006; Sandage & Shults, 2007) based on the dialectic of spiritual dwelling and seeking (Wuthnow, 1998) was tested in a sample of Christian graduate seminary students (N = 181). Spiritual dwelling was operationalized using a developmental measure of realistic acceptance (RA)(Hall & Edwards, 2002), and spiritual seeking was measured with the Quest Scale (Batson & Schoenrade, 1…
Meditative prayer, hope, adult attachment, and forgiveness: A proposed model
The present study tested a theoretical model of the relationship between meditative prayer and interpersonal forgiveness with hope and adult attachment as mediator variables. Results supported the proposed multiple mediation model as determined by multiple measures of model fit with the data. Significant direct effects were observed between meditative prayer and hope, hope and adult attachment, and adult attachment and forgiveness. A significant …
Relational spirituality, differentiation of self, and virtue as predictors of intercultural development
The present study tested the relationships between spirituality, differentiation of self (DoS), virtue (gratitude and forgiveness), and intercultural development among graduate trainees in the helping professions. A relational model of spiritual dwelling and seeking and the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity were used to conceptualise the study. Data were collected in a sample (N = 174) of graduate students in counselling psychology…
Generativity, Relational Spirituality, Gratitude, and Mental Health: Relationships and Pathways
In this study, the authors investigated generativity strivings or commitments in relation to spirituality, spiritual transformation (ST), gratitude, and mental health in the educational training context of graduate-level students (N = 194) at a university-based theological seminary in North America. Relational spirituality was operationalized based on a relational theoretical model (Shults & Sandage, 2006 Shults, F. L. and Sandage, S. J. 2006. Tr…
Converging Horizons for Relational Integration: Differentiation-Based Collaboration
Integration is meaningless without the sharing of power: Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968/1986, p.317) We appreciate the invitation to reflect on the past, present, and future of the integration of and Christian theology. Our primary interest is to explore integration through relational lens which moves relationality to the foreground. Our approach to integration prioritizes attention to relational dynamics between actual psychologists and theologia…
Spiritual dwelling and well-being: The mediating role of differentiation of self in a sample of distressed adults
The current study tested a theoretical model of the relationship between spiritual dwelling and well-being, with differentiation of self (DoS) as a mediator variable. The proposed model is informed by a theory of differentiation-based spirituality, and therefore examined the hypothesis that DoS would significantly mediate the relationship between spiritual dwelling and negative mood. It was also hypothesised that DoS would not mediate the relatio…
Spiritual pathology and religious coping as predictors of forgiveness
Spiritual pathology, religious coping, and dispositional forgiveness were investigated in two studies with graduate students at a Christian university-based seminary. Spiritual pathology was operationalised using measures of spiritual instability and spiritual grandiosity. Study 1 (N = 194) examined patterns of correlation between positive and negative religious coping items, spiritual pathology, and dispositional forgiveness. Spiritual instabili…
Evaluation of an Intervention Designed to Help Divorced Parents Forgive Their Ex-Spouse
This study evaluated a 1-day workshop combined with postintervention journal writing designed to help divorced parents forgive their ex-spouse. Participants (N = 99) were randomly assigned to a workshop with gratitude journal condition (WG), the same workshop with daily events journal condition (WDE), or a wait-list comparison condition (WAIT). Participants completed measures of forgiveness, well-being, and parenting at pretest, posttest (i.e., a…
The tragic-ironic self: A qualitative case study of suicide
Spirituality, social justice, and intercultural competence: Mediator effects for differentiation of self
Psychology (78 works) · Social Psychology (68 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (65 works) · Spirituality (40 works) · Psychotherapist (31 works) · Forgiveness and Related Behaviors (26 works) · Epistemology (25 works) · Clinical Psychology (24 works) · Medicine (24 works) · Sociology (24 works)