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Senior Sociology Major Awarded at Northeast Ohio Undergraduate Sociology Symposium

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Posted on Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Senior Sociology major and Religion minor Charissa Mikoski presented her capstone research at the Northeast Ohio Undergraduate Sociology Symposium (NEOUSS) at the College of Wooster on April 8, 2017. Seventy-five undergraduates from over twenty-five colleges and universities presented their work in paper presentations and a research poster session.

“NEOUSS was a great experience! It was fun to share my work with other sociologists and to learn about what other people have spent time studying. Everyone was very encouraging and supportive of my research,” said Charissa.

Charissa’s research entitled “The Art of Balance: Influential Factors on Work-Life Balance Stress among Presbyterian Church (USA) Clergywomen” was awarded second prize in the research poster category. During her poster session, the most common question Charissa received was what drew her to this research topic.

 “Both of my parents are Presbyterian ministers,” said Charissa. “I’ve grown up in the church and it has always been of interest to me. In addition, when picking a topic for my capstone, I tried to incorporate my religion minor in some way.”

Charissa surveyed 255 Presbyterian Church (USA) clergywomen to look at the impacts of Myers-Briggs personality type, emotional exhaustion, work satisfaction, and spousal assistance on a clergywoman’s feeling of stress about balancing work demands and family responsibilities. She concluded that introverts experience more work-life balance stress than extraverts, clergy who are satisfied with their jobs experienced less work-life balance stress and clergy who were emotionally exhausted experienced more work-life balance stress.

After graduation, Charissa looks forward to continue starting graduate school at Purdue University in the fall to continue building her research skills and one day become a professional quantitative researcher.

For more information, contact Dr. Kristin Park at kpark@westminster.edu or 724-946-7251.