Interdisciplinary Researchers Receive $4.71 Million Grant for Longitudinal Study on Parents’ Patience in Adversity

Contact: Lori Fogleman, 254-709-5959
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Researchers have long studied the virtues of gratitude and grit, but the study of the foundational virtue of patience has received less attention. Through a $4.71 million grant from Templeton Religion Trust, a team of interdisciplinary researchers at Baylor University and three other U.S. universities are set to begin a longitudinal study on patience. The study will focus on what can be learned about patience from those who experience adversity, particularly for parents of adolescents.

The study is part of the Baylor Research in Growth and Human Thriving Science Center, or BRIGHTS Center, a multidisciplinary center housed in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences that catalyzes research related to the science of human flourishing. The grant is an interdisciplinary endeavor, spanning Baylor researchers from psychology, philosophy and education alongside researchers at partner institutions at Wake Forest University, UC-Riverside and Claremont Graduate University.

“In our society, especially in the U.S., we don't like to think about patience. It means we aren't in control. We have to wait. We might have to suffer, but patience is an essential component of human thriving and flourishing,” said BRIGHTS Center founder Sarah Schnitker, Ph.D., professor of psychology and a nationally recognized leader in virtue development research.

“Through this grant from Templeton Religion Trust, we have a community of scholars across the sciences and humanities who want to study this character strength in parents. The literature tells us that parents of adolescents are the most stressed and have the lowest parenting satisfaction, more so than parents of toddlers,” Schnitker said. “This longitudinal study across the disciplines will allow us to measure those different levels of patience and help us holistically understand what predicts whether a person in adversity develops patience and the mechanisms by which patience enables a person to act and live well in adversity.”

Parental patience day to day, across the lifespan

Over four years, researchers will conduct a mixed-methods longitudinal study among parents who face adverse circumstances: parents of adolescents with developmental disabilities, Muslim-American parents of adolescents and Southern California parents of adolescents. By considering patience as a state, trait and virtue, the researchers aim to discover the dynamic processes by which patience is enacted in daily life and across the life course, ways persons and situations interact to facilitate or inhibit patience, functions of patience and the mechanisms by which people cultivate patience as a virtue.

“Parenting of adolescents with disabilities can be an incredibly challenging role, and there is much these parents can teach us. Likewise, for Muslim American parents, patience and gratitude are two core virtues in Islam, so there is constant conversation around patience. Our Southern California sample has a lot of immigrant families and families with diverse socioeconomic status who may face different stressors. By doing one study that includes the three groups, we will be able to look at specific challenges they face and what struggles may be shared by these parents across their patience development,” Schnitker said.

“We are eager to learn with and from parents about what patience looks like in their lives and the difference it makes in the midst of this complicated transition period. The opportunity to collaborate across centers and with such incredible colleagues makes this project especially exciting for us,” said co-investigator Erik W. Carter, Ph.D., The Luther Sweet Endowed Chair in Disabilities and Executive Director of the Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities in the School of Education.

The philosophy of patience

In addition to researchers from psychology and education, philosophers will be embedded in research sites to advise on study design, findings, interpretation and synthesis with theory. The BRIGHTS Center – in its function as a research accelerator – is currently running an RFP for early-career researchers in psychology, who will engage in multiple phases of training. BRIGHTS later will run an RFP for early-career scholars in philosophy/religion to participate in a one-week summer seminar.

“If you look at lists of the virtues in ancient Greek philosophy, you’ll notice patience does not make the list. Philosophers in that tradition, like Aristotle, focus on virtues that fit people for mastering themselves and ruling others. By contrast, Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions all foreground patience as an important virtue, though it involves more receptivity than mastery and control,” said co-principal investigator Anne Jeffrey, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy and affiliate professor of medical humanities. “Patience enables us to take the right posture towards ourselves and others in our suffering and dependence. As we consider how patience contributes to human flourishing today, the interdisciplinary approach will ground the philosophical and theological theoretical work in the lived experience of people who are no stranger to suffering, and who care well for others in their dependence and suffering.”

Also, through the grant, eminent scholars in religion and theology will produce public media discussing patience as a resource for interfaith engagement, while the BRIGHTS Center will award prizes for the best religion/philosophy articles on patience. The researchers also expect their study to produce an open-access codebook/dataset, dozens of empirical and conceptual papers, numerous presentations, four conferences, resources for caregivers and other public materials. In addition, they expect to train 18-21 early-career scholars.

Co-principal investigators for the study are Kate Sweeny (UC Riverside) and Anne Jeffrey (Baylor). Co-investigators include Juliette Ratchford (Wake Forest), Merve Balkaya-Ince (Wake Forest), Eranda Jayawickreme (Wake Forest), Kendall Bronk (Claremont Graduate University), Liz Davis (UC Riverside), Erik Carter (Baylor), Sarah Mire (Baylor) and Terrill Saxon (Baylor).

Interdisciplinary research on human flourishing

Broadening interdisciplinary research and impact, including building upon existing research and teaching strength around human flourishing, is one of the central commitments within Baylor’s new Baylor in Deeds strategic plan, which provides a roadmap to greater research excellence and global impact. This latest grant through BRIGHTS represents a further, structured step in advancing that work alongside the goals of Baylor in Deeds.

“We have philosophers who are involved with the scientists, we have psychologists, we have education scholars, we have multiple domains within psychology. We are trying to do good team science that spans the humanities and the sciences,” Schnitker said.

And it matters that Baylor, as a Christian Research 1 university, is taking a lead role in an interdisciplinary study of patience.

“As a faith-based institution, and as a person who always also studies spirituality and religion, we see that patience comes up not only in Christianity, but also in all the major world religions as really an essential virtue,” she said. “It’s a virtue, though, that people find very difficult, and patience is something that's not just easy to do, so we can use the methods of good science and of good philosophy to help illuminate what we might be able to learn to help people grow in this virtue, both within religions and outside of it.”

To learn more about the study, visit the BRIGHTS Center website.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Learn more about Baylor University at www.baylor.edu.