The moderating roles of self-reflection and self-insight in the relationship between religious coping methods and the resilience of Australian protestant ministers

The frequency, and the personal and vicarious nature of stressors faced by ministry workers have been identified as contributing factors to burn-out in ministry. This thesis aimed to extend the Systematic Self-Reflection Model of Resilience Strengthening, exploring the roles of self-reflection and self-insight in refining the use of religious coping methods, to strengthen well-being and resilience within a ministry population. To test hypotheses, 277 Australian Protestant ministry workers completed an online survey. The mean age of participants was 46.7 years and 19.9% of the sample was female. The survey assessed wellbeing and perceived resilience as outcome variables, with stressor frequency, self-reflection, self-insight, and six religious coping methods as predictor variables. Hierarchical regression analyses found that self-reflection and self-insight were positively related to aligned religious coping methods and that self-insight was positively related to both well-being and perceived resilience. Aligned religious coping methods were generally found to be related to wellbeing, but not to resilience. Together, findings emphasise the importance of self-insight. For ministry workers seeking to strengthen resilience, this study supports activity that builds self-insight to refine use of coping methods aligned to religious values.