D E Eagle
Biographic Data
| ID | 19521 |
|---|---|
| NAME | D E Eagle |
| GIVEN NAMES | D E |
| FAMILY NAME | Eagle |
| SIGNATURE | EAGLE D E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Duke University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4909-9497 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 117 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Christian Congregations as Sites of Response to Community Substance Use Issues: An Exploratory Needs Assessment Survey of Clergy in North Carolina, USA
Suicidal Ideation Among Students at a United States Seminary: The “Wounded Healer” and Implications for Clergy Mental Health
The role of faith in suicide prevention among people living with HIV: Perspectives of religious leaders and mental health workers in Tanzania
Religious leaders are important actors on the pathway to care for many people experiencing mental distress, particularly in low-resource settings. There is a need for collaboration with religious leaders in suicide risk recognition and interventions. From May-June, 2024, we conducted qualitative interviews with 14 religious leaders and eight mental health workers in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania to explore the potential to integrate aspects of faith into…
Religious and Spiritual Struggles and Depressive Symptoms Among Seminary Students: Childhood Religiosity as Boon or Buffer
How Do Imams Describe Mental Health and Well-Being? A Qualitative Study
The weight of the yoke: A qualitative analysis of the stressors for clergy across a mental health continuum
Healthy clergy serve as the cornerstone of thriving congregations and, by extension, healthier communities. However, the multifaced working responsibilities combined with a deep sense of responsibility to one's sacred call can produce a cascade of sources of stress that are not always taken into consideration when assessing ways to support clergy. Using data from the Clergy Health Initiative Longitudinal Survey (CHILS) and in-depth interviews fro…
The influence of worship practices on views of the etiology and treatment of depression among Revivalist and Protestant pastors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Pentecostal or Charismatic Christianity (PCC) emphasises spiritual forces and the Holy Spirit's power. Concerns exist that PCC clergy might over-spiritualize mental illness, discouraging professional mental health treatment for their parishioners. This study assessed how PCC worship practices influenced pastors’ views on depression in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 2018 survey included 114 Protestant pastors using a vignette from the…
A brief report on the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences among United Methodist clergy
These results contribute to the study of ACEs and career choice, highlighting the need for targeted support and training for clergy with these experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
House Negro or Field Negro: Racial Salience and Claims-Making in the United Methodist Church
Relational inequalities theory relies on categorical differences in status to explain why the claims of people of color may be discouraged or denied. However, this mechanism may be insufficient to explain intraracial inequalities in claims-making. In this study, we draw from 17 semistructured interviews with pastors of color in the United Methodist Church to examine how racial salience affects the success of claims to leadership positions, congre…
Peer Networks and Ideological Consistency: How Student Communities Facilitate Belief Liberalization in Higher Education
Why do students in higher education tend to become more liberal? The authors outline a model of belief change wherein cognitive motivations for ideological consistency interact with social factors in peer networks to influence how students in higher education engage with social change, often resulting in a shift toward more liberal views. Hypotheses derived from this framework are tested using longitudinal data on two cohorts of divinity school s…
Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Seminarians: Personal Experiences of Trauma and Implications for Pastoral Well-Being and Ministerial Training
Recent research has shown Mainline Protestant clergy evidence poor mental health. In accounting for this, research has focused on occupational factors that impact health, with less attention paid to the role of selection into ministry as it relates to health. We investigate one possible selection characteristic, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), among a sample of 535 seminarians attending a Mainline seminary. Compared with a demographically m…
Childhood Abuse and the Mental Health of Seminary Students: The Mediating Role of R/S Struggles
Seminary students have been found to be at a higher risk of experiencing abuse in childhood compared with the general U.S. population, as well as demonstrate mental health struggles. This study aims to understand how R/S struggles might explain the relationship between childhood abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual) among a sample of seminary students, a group that is at a higher risk of experiencing emotional and physical abuse in childhood co…
Reltrad2: Refining the State of the Art of Religious Classification by Reconsidering the Categorization of Nondenominational Respondents
RELTRAD is a major religious taxonomy used by a large number of researchers. Although criticisms have been raised about its utility, improving the algorithm to capture contemporary religious dynamics is important given its widespread use. The present RELTRAD taxonomy classifies more religiously active nondenominational respondents as Conservative Protestants and codes the remainder as missing data. A growing number of Americans indicate they are …
Divine Struggles Among Those Doing God's Work: A Longitudinal Assessment Predicting Depression and Burnout and the Role of Social Support in United Methodist Clergy
In this study, we examine the role of spiritual struggles among clergy, in the form of 'divine struggle' or feelings of alienation from God and their associations with well-being (depressive symptoms and burnout) among clergy. Drawing from a life-stress perspective, we also test whether received and anticipated congregational support moderates these associations. Using two waves of data (2016-2019) of the Clergy Panel Health Survey of United Meth…
Introducing the Seminary to Early Ministry Study
The Seminary to Early Ministry (SEM) Study is a mixed-method, prospective study designed to provide high-quality empirical data on student formation in theological education. The study will use a series of surveys and in-depth interviews to track three cohorts of divinity school students from matriculation into the early years of their careers. As a result, the study hopes to compile the most comprehensive longitudinal dataset on theological educ…
When Shepherds Shed: Trajectories of Weight-Related Behaviors in a Holistic Health Intervention Tailored for US Christian Clergy
Maintaining healthy behaviors is challenging. Based upon previous reports that in North Carolina (NC), USA, overweight/obese clergy lost weight during a two-year religiously tailored health intervention, we described trajectories of diet, physical activity, and sleep. We investigated whether behavior changes were associated with weight and use of health-promoting theological messages. Improvements were observed in sleep, calorie-dense food intake…
Pastoring in a Pandemic: Sources and Types of Social Support Used by United Methodist Clergy in the Early Period of the Covid-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings fundamentally unsettled routine ways of doing ministry. In this article, we draw on 50 in-depth interviews conducted with United Methodist clergy in the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020–January 2021) to examine the sources and t ypes of social support pastors relied on during this time. We found that most clergy reported drawing from a diverse eco-system of socia…
The Gap in Mental Health Service Utilization Among United Methodist Clergy with Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms
Clergy are tasked with multiple interpersonal administrative, organizational, and religious responsibilities, such as preaching, teaching, counseling, administering sacraments, developing lay leader skills, and providing leadership and vision for the congregation and community. The high expectations and demands placed on them put them at an increased risk for mental distress such as depression and anxiety. Little is known about whether and how cl…
The Selah Pilot Study of Spiritual, Mindfulness, and Stress Inoculation Practices on Stress-Related Outcomes Among United Methodist Clergy in the United States
The job–demand–control–support model indicates that clergy are at high risk for chronic stress and adverse health outcomes. A multi-group pre-test–post-test design was used to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and range of outcome effect sizes for four potentially stress-reducing interventions: stress inoculation training, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), the Daily Examen, and Centering Prayer. All United Methodist clergy in Nort…
Burial workers’ perceptions of community resistance and support systems during an Ebola outbreak in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo: A qualitative study
As with other disease outbreaks globally, we found that government mistrust and religious beliefs strongly impacted community perceptions of the EVD outbreak. Previous studies have demonstrated clinic-based medical personnel are often the targets of violence. Our research shows that burial workers were also targeted and exposed to extreme levels of violence in their work. Along with their ability to effectively respond to the outbreak, violence h…
Is There a Crisis in Clergy Health: Reorienting Research Using a National Sample
Are religious leaders unusually unhealthy? This question has long occupied scholars interested in the study of religious institutions, and a significant body of research has examined the causes, correlates, and effects of poor health among clergy. In this study, we aimed to: (1) outline the development of, and bias inherent to, the scholarly understanding of clergy health over the past 50 years; (2) test, using a recently collected nationally rep…
Expanding the Horizontal Call: A Typology of Social Influence on the Call to Ministry
This research examines the social actors and interactions that facilitate seminary students' sense of calling. Drawing from 36 in-depth interviews with first year Masters of Divinity students, we introduce six ideal typical social others who play a formative role in the early stages of a call to ministry: instigators, exemplars, interpreters, affirmers, challengers, and codiscerners. Together, these findings demonstrate that the call to ministry,…
Changes in Sabbath-Keeping and Mental Health Over Time: Evaluation Findings From the Sabbath Living Study
Work-related stress is experienced at a high level in the United States. Clergy are particularly likely to over-extend themselves to act on their sacred call. Sabbath-keeping may offer a practice that is beneficial for mental health, yet many Protestant clergy do not keep a regular Sabbath. We examined whether United Methodist clergy who attended informative Sabbath-keeping workshops reported changes in spiritual well-being and mental health post…
Seminary Students and Physical Health: Beliefs, Behaviors, and Barriers
Are Women Elders Paid Less than Men? A Brief Report from the North Carolina Statewide Longitudinal Survey of United Methodist Clergy
Background Research has established that salary disparities exist between men and women pastors in the United Methodist Church. However, little work has been done examining the root and trajectories of these differences within the denomination. Purpose In this report, we explore systematic salary differences between United Methodist men and women elders (i.e. ordained clergy) serving in one of the two Annual Conferences in North Carolina. Methods…
Changing Patterns of Attendance at Religious Services in Canada, 1986-2008
According to the General Social Survey, the combined rate of weekly and monthly attendance at religious services in Canada has declined by about 20 points from 1986 to 2008. Approximately half of this decline stems from the increase in the proportion of people reporting no religion, who, for the most part, do not attend religious services. The other portion of this decline is attributable to eroding attendance rates among Catholics, particularly …
Perceived social support, received social support, and depression among clergy
We argue that perceived support is best conceptualized more as a measure of how an individual appraises his/her situation rather than a true reflection of how much support he/she receives. To test this theory, we used survey data from the Clergy Health Initiative Panel Survey to examine the relationship between perceived and received social support and their association with depressive symptoms in clergy ( N = 1,288). Overall, analyses revealed p…
Pastoral Ministry in Unsettled Times: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Clergy during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Background COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings have created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded to COVID-19, these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. There is scant qualitative data describing the lived reality of religious leaders and commun…
Intersecting Identities as a Source of Religious Incongruence
Chaves (2010) argues that much of the work in the sociology of religion is susceptible to the religious congruence fallacy—the tendency to assume consistency between religious beliefs and one's attitudes and behaviors across situations when they are in fact highly variable. We build on and extend this argument by focusing on intersecting group identities as a mechanism for identifying such incongruence, not only within religious contexts, but als…
Reproducing Inequality in a Formally Antiracist Organization: The Case of Racialized Career Pathways in the United Methodist Church
Victor Ray argues organizations are racial structures that legitimate the unequal distribution of resources and stratify the agency of racial groups through organizational processes that treat White identity as a credential and decouple formal rules meant to reduce disparities from practice. This study demonstrates the utility of this theory in an empirical case study of disparities in earnings, job quality, and advancement among clergy in the Un…
Is There a Crisis in Clergy Health: Reorienting Research Using a National Sample
Are religious leaders unusually unhealthy? This question has long occupied scholars interested in the study of religious institutions, and a significant body of research has examined the causes, correlates, and effects of poor health among clergy. In this study, we aimed to: (1) outline the development of, and bias inherent to, the scholarly understanding of clergy health over the past 50 years; (2) test, using a recently collected nationally rep…
Divine Struggles Among Those Doing God's Work: A Longitudinal Assessment Predicting Depression and Burnout and the Role of Social Support in United Methodist Clergy
In this study, we examine the role of spiritual struggles among clergy, in the form of 'divine struggle' or feelings of alienation from God and their associations with well-being (depressive symptoms and burnout) among clergy. Drawing from a life-stress perspective, we also test whether received and anticipated congregational support moderates these associations. Using two waves of data (2016-2019) of the Clergy Panel Health Survey of United Meth…
Disentangling Race and Socioeconomic Status in Health Disparities Research: An Examination of Black and White Clergy
The Financial Impacts of Covid-19 on United Methodist Churches in North Carolina: A Qualitative Study of Pastors' Perspectives and Strategies
Background In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in the United States were forced to stop meeting in person and move to remote forms of worship and congregational life. This shift likely impacted congregational finances, which are primarily driven by individual donations. Initial research has suggested that there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the financial impact on congregations, but there has been scant research examining how pas…
The Honeymoon is Over: Occupational Relocation and Changes in Mental Health among United Methodist Clergy
In this study we examine how the process of relocation affects the mental health of United Methodist clergy and the extent to which relocation is associated with changes in clergy perception of the workplace environment and feelings of self-efficacy. We analyzed data from a longitudinal survey of 1375 clergy, one quarter of whom experienced a move between the baseline survey in 2008 and the follow-up survey 2 years later. Contrary to expectations…
Historicizing the Megachurch
The dominant view of megachurches claims they represent a new religious form, born in the United States in the 1970s and 80s. Contrary to this position, this research demonstrates that megachurches enjoy a long history in Protestantism. An important example from the 16th Century Huguenot architect Jacques Perret reveals an early Protestant vision for a large, multi-functional worship space. Soon after, this vision became realized in bricks and mo…
Reltrad2: Refining the State of the Art of Religious Classification by Reconsidering the Categorization of Nondenominational Respondents
RELTRAD is a major religious taxonomy used by a large number of researchers. Although criticisms have been raised about its utility, improving the algorithm to capture contemporary religious dynamics is important given its widespread use. The present RELTRAD taxonomy classifies more religiously active nondenominational respondents as Conservative Protestants and codes the remainder as missing data. A growing number of Americans indicate they are …
Caring and thriving: An international qualitative study of caregivers of orphaned and vulnerable children and strategies to sustain positive mental health
Social Networks, Support, and Depressive Symptoms: Gender Differences among Clergy
This study extends social-psychological research on social networks and mental health by examining cross-gender differences in social integration and depression among United Methodist clergy in North Carolina. Using data from the fifth wave of the Clergy Health Initiative panel survey, we used cross-group models to examine the association of depressive symptoms and network in-degree, out-degree, and perceived social isolation among men (N = 1,145…
House Negro or Field Negro: Racial Salience and Claims-Making in the United Methodist Church
Relational inequalities theory relies on categorical differences in status to explain why the claims of people of color may be discouraged or denied. However, this mechanism may be insufficient to explain intraracial inequalities in claims-making. In this study, we draw from 17 semistructured interviews with pastors of color in the United Methodist Church to examine how racial salience affects the success of claims to leadership positions, congre…
Expanding the Horizontal Call: A Typology of Social Influence on the Call to Ministry
This research examines the social actors and interactions that facilitate seminary students' sense of calling. Drawing from 36 in-depth interviews with first year Masters of Divinity students, we introduce six ideal typical social others who play a formative role in the early stages of a call to ministry: instigators, exemplars, interpreters, affirmers, challengers, and codiscerners. Together, these findings demonstrate that the call to ministry,…
The Negative Relationship between Size and the Probability of Weekly Attendance in Churches in the United States
Are people less likely to attend large churches? Using nationally representative data, I find a negative relationship between size and the probability of attendance for Conservative, Mainline, and black Protestants and for Catholics in parishes larger than 500 attenders. The addition of control variables does not change these patterns. These results support the theory that group cohesion lies at the heart of the size-participation relationship in…
The Loosening Bond of Religion on Canadian Society: Reply to Bibby
Changing Patterns of Attendance at Religious Services in Canada, 1986-2008
According to the General Social Survey, the combined rate of weekly and monthly attendance at religious services in Canada has declined by about 20 points from 1986 to 2008. Approximately half of this decline stems from the increase in the proportion of people reporting no religion, who, for the most part, do not attend religious services. The other portion of this decline is attributable to eroding attendance rates among Catholics, particularly …
Intersecting Identities as a Source of Religious Incongruence
Chaves (2010) argues that much of the work in the sociology of religion is susceptible to the religious congruence fallacy—the tendency to assume consistency between religious beliefs and one's attitudes and behaviors across situations when they are in fact highly variable. We build on and extend this argument by focusing on intersecting group identities as a mechanism for identifying such incongruence, not only within religious contexts, but als…
Intersectionality and Identity: An Exploration of Arab American Women
In the past, research on social stratification focused primarily on the independent contributions of race, socioeconomic status (SES), and gender to status attainment. However, contemporary research in the field recognizes that race, SES, and gender interact to create complicated systems of inequality that go beyond conventional models of stratification. Increasingly, studies add categories such as religion and nativity to the mix and uncover eve…
Religion and Inequality: The Role of Status Attainment and Social Balance Processes
Religion is an important determinant of social and economic inequality, but the mechanisms that underlie this relationship are not well-understood. Early scholars recognized this connection, but their ideas do not adequately explain contemporary stratification patterns. Recent research documents robust empirical relationships between religion and material outcomes but has not yet begun to identify causes of these patterns. We fill this gap by pro…
Methodological considerations in the use of name generators and interpreters
Historicizing the Megachurch
The dominant view of megachurches claims they represent a new religious form, born in the United States in the 1970s and 80s. Contrary to this position, this research demonstrates that megachurches enjoy a long history in Protestantism. An important example from the 16th Century Huguenot architect Jacques Perret reveals an early Protestant vision for a large, multi-functional worship space. Soon after, this vision became realized in bricks and mo…
The Negative Relationship between Size and the Probability of Weekly Attendance in Churches in the United States
Are people less likely to attend large churches? Using nationally representative data, I find a negative relationship between size and the probability of attendance for Conservative, Mainline, and black Protestants and for Catholics in parishes larger than 500 attenders. The addition of control variables does not change these patterns. These results support the theory that group cohesion lies at the heart of the size-participation relationship in…
Madness: American Protestant Responses to Mental Illness, by Heather H. Vacek
Heather Vacek’s book, Madness: American Protestant Responses to Mental Illness reminds us that the story of mental illness in the United States is inextricably bound to the story of religion. She traces this history through the lenses of five “paradigmatic Protestants” who devoted their lives to understanding and treating mental illness: Cotton Mather, Benjamin Rush, Dorothea Dix, Anton Boisen, and Karl Menninger. These figures cover the period f…
The Honeymoon is Over: Occupational Relocation and Changes in Mental Health among United Methodist Clergy
In this study we examine how the process of relocation affects the mental health of United Methodist clergy and the extent to which relocation is associated with changes in clergy perception of the workplace environment and feelings of self-efficacy. We analyzed data from a longitudinal survey of 1375 clergy, one quarter of whom experienced a move between the baseline survey in 2008 and the follow-up survey 2 years later. Contrary to expectations…
Household Charitable Giving at the Intersection of Gender, Marital Status, and Religion
Past research reveals mixed results regarding the relationship between gender and charitable giving. We show gender plays a significant role in giving but only when considered alongside marital status and religion. Using the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study, we model a household’s propensity to give and the amount given. We extend past research by disaggregating unmarried households to look at divorced, widowed, and never-married households,…
Disentangling Race and Socioeconomic Status in Health Disparities Research: An Examination of Black and White Clergy
Caring and thriving: An international qualitative study of caregivers of orphaned and vulnerable children and strategies to sustain positive mental health
Perceived social support, received social support, and depression among clergy
We argue that perceived support is best conceptualized more as a measure of how an individual appraises his/her situation rather than a true reflection of how much support he/she receives. To test this theory, we used survey data from the Clergy Health Initiative Panel Survey to examine the relationship between perceived and received social support and their association with depressive symptoms in clergy ( N = 1,288). Overall, analyses revealed p…
Social Networks, Support, and Depressive Symptoms: Gender Differences among Clergy
This study extends social-psychological research on social networks and mental health by examining cross-gender differences in social integration and depression among United Methodist clergy in North Carolina. Using data from the fifth wave of the Clergy Health Initiative panel survey, we used cross-group models to examine the association of depressive symptoms and network in-degree, out-degree, and perceived social isolation among men (N = 1,145…
Religion and Caregiving for Orphans and Vulnerable Children: A Qualitative Study of Caregivers Across Four Religious Traditions and Five Global Contexts
Studies of caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) rarely examine the role religion plays in their lives. We conducted qualitative interviews of 69 caregivers in four countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Cambodia, and India (Hyderabad and Nagaland), and across four religious traditions: Christian (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant), Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu. We asked respondents to describe the importance of religion for their becomi…
Enjoyment and meaning in daily activities among caregivers of orphaned and separated children in four countries
Clergy Who Leave Congregational Ministry: A Review of the Literature
Since its inception in the 1960s, research on premature (i.e., pre-retirement) clergy attrition from congregational ministry has focused on identifying the factors that precipitate and mitigate ministry exits, while the rates at which clergy leave the ministry have been inconsistently tracked. The literature on clergy attrition is peppered with claims of alarmingly high rates of departure; however, these studies lack strong empirical support. The…
Changes in Sabbath-Keeping and Mental Health Over Time: Evaluation Findings From the Sabbath Living Study
Work-related stress is experienced at a high level in the United States. Clergy are particularly likely to over-extend themselves to act on their sacred call. Sabbath-keeping may offer a practice that is beneficial for mental health, yet many Protestant clergy do not keep a regular Sabbath. We examined whether United Methodist clergy who attended informative Sabbath-keeping workshops reported changes in spiritual well-being and mental health post…
Seminary Students and Physical Health: Beliefs, Behaviors, and Barriers
Are Women Elders Paid Less than Men? A Brief Report from the North Carolina Statewide Longitudinal Survey of United Methodist Clergy
Background Research has established that salary disparities exist between men and women pastors in the United Methodist Church. However, little work has been done examining the root and trajectories of these differences within the denomination. Purpose In this report, we explore systematic salary differences between United Methodist men and women elders (i.e. ordained clergy) serving in one of the two Annual Conferences in North Carolina. Methods…
The Financial Impacts of Covid-19 on United Methodist Churches in North Carolina: A Qualitative Study of Pastors' Perspectives and Strategies
Background In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in the United States were forced to stop meeting in person and move to remote forms of worship and congregational life. This shift likely impacted congregational finances, which are primarily driven by individual donations. Initial research has suggested that there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the financial impact on congregations, but there has been scant research examining how pas…
Pastoral Ministry in Unsettled Times: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences of Clergy during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Background COVID-19 and its associated restrictions around in-person gatherings have created unprecedented challenges for religious congregations and those who lead them. While several surveys have attempted to describe how pastors and congregations responded to COVID-19, these provide a relatively thin picture of how COVID-19 is impacting religious life. There is scant qualitative data describing the lived reality of religious leaders and commun…
Reproducing Inequality in a Formally Antiracist Organization: The Case of Racialized Career Pathways in the United Methodist Church
Victor Ray argues organizations are racial structures that legitimate the unequal distribution of resources and stratify the agency of racial groups through organizational processes that treat White identity as a credential and decouple formal rules meant to reduce disparities from practice. This study demonstrates the utility of this theory in an empirical case study of disparities in earnings, job quality, and advancement among clergy in the Un…
Introducing the Seminary to Early Ministry Study
The Seminary to Early Ministry (SEM) Study is a mixed-method, prospective study designed to provide high-quality empirical data on student formation in theological education. The study will use a series of surveys and in-depth interviews to track three cohorts of divinity school students from matriculation into the early years of their careers. As a result, the study hopes to compile the most comprehensive longitudinal dataset on theological educ…
Psychology (28 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (28 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Political science (20 works) · Medicine (16 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (16 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Mental health (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Psychiatry (12 works)