Date
12-19-2023
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)
Chair
Mollie Boyd
Keywords
elder abuse, African American, Black Church, spiritual leaders, elder mistreatment
Disciplines
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Downey, Cassandra R., "A Phenomenological Study in Understanding African American Spiritual Leaders and the Black Church on Elder Abuse" (2023). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5061.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5061
Abstract
This qualitative study described how the Black Church and African American Spiritual Leaders in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, understood the issue of elder abuse and the Black Church's role in navigating education and resources to those who are victims or at risk. African-American Spiritual Leaders' role and leadership are integral in combating elder abuse among their older members of the church and society. African Americans have always placed a significant portion of their support in the church and frequently turn to them before considering other options. Acknowledging the church's and spiritual leaders' involvement in comprehending the awareness of elder maltreatment is essential when working with the older population, which further emphasizes this obligation. Understanding how the Christian church expresses hope and the likeness of God to its elderly population depends critically on understanding how pastoral leadership illustrates hope and the image of God. This framework outlined used Burn's (1978) transformational leadership theory to explain the Spiritual Leaders' knowledge and expertise to represent their capacity to communicate vision and inspiration for change to the senior population. This study used one research question and two supporting questions. A survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with African American church leaders who had any information or experience with elder maltreatment served as the primary data-gathering methods for this study. This researcher aims to gather pertinent information for future research studies by looking at the leadership styles of pastoral leaders, their knowledge of elder abuse, and the role of the Black Church in successfully navigating elder abuse.
