Title:
The lived experience of fatherlessness and spiritual resilience among African American emerging adult males in college
Author:
Mario R.M. Conliffe
Thesis Advisor:
Jill L. Snodgrass
Committee Member:
Hannah B. Bayne
Committee Member:
Thomas E. Rodgerson
Committee Member:
L. Mickey Fenzel
Committee Member:
Stephen Fowl
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2018
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
Available scholarship on fatherless African American emerging adult males focuses little on their resilience, and there is no attention to spiritual resilience specifically. Anecdotal evidence suggested that despite facing adversity, many college age African American males utilize spirituality, religiosity, and other resources to promote resilience in the wake of fatherlessness (Conliffe, 2017a). This qualitative study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the lived experiences of fatherlessness and spiritual resilience among 11 African American emerging adult males in college. The study resulted in eight superordinate themes: a) adversity; b) participants’ lived experience of fatherlessness; c) impact, consequences, and outcomes of fatherlessness; d) relationships; e) identity; f) resilience; g) participants’ lived experience of spirituality and religiosity; and h) self-sufficiency. Findings were consistent with previous research regarding the impact of fatherlessness, but further indicated that fatherlessness can adversely impact spirituality and religiosity. In the wake of this impact, however, participants demonstrated resilience, and more specifically, spiritual resilience. The findings further indicated how kinship, a mother’s resilience, participants’ own spirituality and religiosity, and their self-sufficiency were instrumental in helping participants to cope with fatherlessness and in bolstering their resilience. Implications for both the practice of pastoral counseling and future research are addressed.
Subject:
Electronic dissertations
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Level:
Doctoral
Discipline:
Pastoral Counseling
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online to Loyola Notre Dame Library basic constituency.
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Identifier:
ConliffeMRM-18
