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Religion and Happiness Among Israeli Jews: Findings from the ISSP Religion III Survey
Abstract
This study investigates religious predictors of happiness in a population-based sample of Israeli Jewish adults (N = 991). Using data collected in 2009–2010 as a part of the International Social Survey Programme’s Religion III Survey, analyses were conducted on a fully recursive structural model of the effects of synagogue attendance and several religious mediators on a single-item measure of happiness. Bivariately, every religious measure (synagogue attendance, prayer frequency, certainty of God beliefs, a four-item Supernatural Beliefs Scale, and subjective religiosity) is positively and significantly associated with happiness. In the structural model, 11 of 15 hypothesized paths are significant. Of these, only subjective religiosity exhibits a significant direct effect on happiness (β = 0.15, p < .01). The other four religious indicators, however, all exert indirect effects on happiness through subjective religiosity and combinations of each other. Total effects on happiness of both synagogue attendance (β = 0.10, p < .01) and the Supernatural Beliefs Scale (β = 0.12, p < .05) are statistically significant. Analyses adjust for effects of age and other sociodemographic covariates. Results build on a growing body of population-based findings supporting a salutary impact of Jewish religious observance on subjective well-being in Israel and the diaspora.
... The benchmark regression results suggested that people with religious beliefs had higher levels of depression in China, which was also partially supported by the relevant literature (63,64). But by taking empirical measurements and/or conducting metaanalyses using different measurement scales, samples, databases, and taking data from different countries, religious beliefs, and nations, most related studies had found that religious beliefs and participation in religious behaviors could improve happiness, subjective well-being, and mental health (65)(66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71)(72)(73). For example, Cohen-Zada and Sander (68) used repeal as an instrumental variable for church attendance and provided direct evidence that church attendance had a significant positive effect on happiness; the study of Kortt et al. (66) provided strong evidence of an association between attendance at religious services and life satisfaction in the Australian social context; Van Cappellen et al. (71) found that religious beliefs could increase happiness through positive emotions of self-transcendence. ...
... For example, Cohen-Zada and Sander (68) used repeal as an instrumental variable for church attendance and provided direct evidence that church attendance had a significant positive effect on happiness; the study of Kortt et al. (66) provided strong evidence of an association between attendance at religious services and life satisfaction in the Australian social context; Van Cappellen et al. (71) found that religious beliefs could increase happiness through positive emotions of self-transcendence. In this context, the primary mechanisms of religious belief at play were more social support from believers and more optimism toward evil deeds (65)(66)(67). As Zou et al. (74) pointed out, the positive aspects of religion could help people accept failure and negative experiences as a part of life and make peace with them. ...
This study aimed to explore the depression levels of those serving as state functionaries in China. We used data from the 2016 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey and the ordinary least squares model for the regression analysis. The results found: i) The degree of depression of state functionaries was found to be lower than that of other workers; that is, the overall depression index of state functionaries was 1.010 points lower, and the result was significant at the degree of 1%; ii) state functionaries had a lower degree of depression than workers in all other occupation groups; iii) older state functionaries had lower depression than their younger counterparts; iv) the degree of depression of state functionaries in the provinces involved in China's three major urban agglomerations was higher than that of those in other provinces; and v) the degree of depression of female state functionaries was lower than that their male peers. Thus, there is an association between serving as a state functionary in China and depression. State functionaries have lower levels of depression than other working groups. These levels were generally lower but varied according to age, sex, and province.
... In a research conducted by Golshekoh (2015), a significant negative association was observed between religious attitudes and anxiety. Levin (2014), Mashili and Heydari (2015) affirmed that happiness of students was elevated due to increased religious attitudes. ...
... The results of the first hypothesis, which suggested a positive relationship between religious attitudes and happiness, are consistent with the results obtained by Lewis et al. Levin (2014), and Mashili and Heydari (2015). It was demonstrated that religion and religious attitudes and beliefs could promote happiness in several ways. ...
The study aimed to predict the happiness of adolescents based on coping styles and religious attitudes. To this end, the correlational research methodology was used. In total, 381 subjects were selected from adolescents of Semnan (Eastern province of Iran), using multistage clustering sampling method. Research tools were Ways of Coping Questionnaire by Lazarus, Golriz and Barahani’s Religious Attitude Questionnaire, and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. Data analysis was performed in SPSS using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. Results of Pearson’s correlation demonstrated a significant positive relationship between happiness of adolescents and variables of problem-focused coping styles (r = 0.31, P < 0.01) and religious attitudes (r = 0.129, P < 0.05). Meanwhile, a negative significant association was observed between emotion-focused coping styles and happiness (r = −0.184, P < 0.01). Moreover, results of multiple regression analysis indicated that the listed variables explained 17% of the variance of happiness in totality. According to the results, it is recommended that use of problem-focused styles be emphasized in addition to strengthening of religious attitudes to increase the happiness of adolescents.
... Moreover, using religion and trust in God for coping with difficult events were related to lower depression and anxiety (Krumrei, Pirutinsky, & Rosmarin, 2013;Rosmarin, Pargament, & Mahoney, 2009). Research on the Jewish-Israeli population found that religiosity, measured with different indicators, is linked to better life satisfaction (Levin, 2012b(Levin, , 2013c, less stress and a healthier life style (Shmueli & Tamir, 2007), better well-being (Levin, 2011(Levin, , 2013b and happiness (Levin, 2013b(Levin, , 2014. ...
... Moreover, the advantages of having a diverse variable set that reflects a wide range of control variables along with the very large sample that SHARE offers for analysis outweigh the limitations inherent in the use of a single variable to capture religiosity. Future studies may address this shortcoming by utilizing a different database, perhaps one with more religionoriented content, such as the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) (Levin, 2014). Future research may also examine the mediating variables of the religion-health interaction, in the spirit of the study by Pirutinsky et al. (2011). ...
This study examined the correlates of religiosity among Jewish Israelis aged 50 and older. Based on the second wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, the findings show that almost half the Jewish respondents never pray and that, on average, prayer frequency is lower among Jewish Israelis than it is among most of their European counterparts. Multivariate logistic analyses revealed that those who pray more often have more health conditions, are less able to make ends meet financially, and have fewer years of education. However, when facing ill health those who pray more often display a relatively lesser decline in their sense of well-being.
... Many of these studies have found that those who pray more frequently experience higher levels of well-being than those who pray less frequently. For example, in populations of Australian adults (Francis & Kaldor, 2002), Israeli Jewish adults (Levin, 2014), Muslims (Munir et al., 2012), and cancer patients (Gene Meraviglia, 2004), prayer frequency was positively related to happiness and psychological well-being. Other studies have found nonsignificant or negative relationships between prayer frequency and well-being (see McCullough & Larson, 1999, for a review). ...
Prayer is an important aspect of many people's daily lives, yet little is known about the relationships between prayer and daily experiences and well-being in ecologically valid settings. In three studies, participants (N = 350) completed questionnaires once a day for 2 weeks (4,437 daily reports) regarding the events they experienced each day, their emotions, well-being, and the prominence of the four types of prayer constituting the ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication) taxonomy. Thanksgiving and adoration were more prominent in prayers on days when positive events were reported and well-being was high (relative to individuals' own average reports of positive events and well-being). In contrast, supplication was more prominent on days when negative events were reported and well-being was low. Relationships between daily events, states of well-being, and prayers of confession were mixed. Lagged analyses indicated that present-day supplication, thanksgiving, and adoration negatively predicted well-being the following day. These lagged effects were weaker among people who prayed more frequently. Finally, each prayer type was predicted by distinct, nonreligious emotional states-supplication by envy, thanksgiving by gratitude, confession by guilt, and adoration by awe. By moving beyond cross-sectional and experimental paradigms, we have provided insights about the dynamic nature of prayer through repeated measurement in naturalistic contexts. The content of individuals' prayers reflects their daily experiences and has consequences for their well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
... Religious beliefs may have an influence on people's behaviour and lifestyle; according to some scholars religious people try to avoid habits that may have an adverse affect on their lives like substance abuse (More & Gwatkin, 1796). Such beliefs tend to have a positive impact on the emotional and mental state of the majority of religious people as substance abuse has often been associated with depression and overall poor health (Levin, 2013). In Handbook of Religion and Health Koenig explores the state of happiness in Americans who had given up their religious beliefs; however, based on his survey, the writer concluded that there was little relationship between unhappiness and the giving up of religious beliefs (Koenig et al., 2001). ...
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to examine the relationship between happiness and religious beliefs.
THE RESEARCH PROBLEMS AND METHODS: The research problem is contained in the question: What is the relationship between happiness and religious beliefs in the light of the theoretical- cognitive analysis? The literature on the subject was analyzed.
THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The analysis of the literature relevant to the subject began with selected approaches to happiness, among others in relation to positive psychology. Next, the researcher referred to category – religious beliefs, and finally, the relationship between two the analyzed categories was examined. The process concluded with forensic attention that was focused on the conclusions resulting from this analysis.
RESEARCH RESULTS: Happiness, determined by many factors, including essentially a person’s personality and the events that occur in his /her life, is linked to the religious beliefs. Religious people tend to be happy more than those without beliefs. Thus, it can be implied that there is a correlation between the categories: religious beliefs and happiness.
CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The conducted analysis of the research subject, eliciting aspects of positive psychology such as happiness, the sense of meaning in life, indicated an important factor shaping positive attitudes towards the life trajectory, which are religious beliefs. This issue should be dealt with in the future in the context of shaping a mature human personality, which is undoubtedly influenced by religious beliefs and their quality considered in the category of the quality of spiritual life, and the quality of life, in general.
... The World Values Survey (WVS) is another well-known longitudinal study, originating in 1981, spanning almost 100 countries, and spawning numerous contributions to the SWB literature due to its open availability (Kim 2018;Sarracino 2010). Other established sources of longitudinal wellbeing data include the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA; Dean and Phillips 2015), the European Social Survey (ESS; Welsch and Kuehling 2017), the U.S. General Social Survey (GSS; Ifcher and Zarghamee 2014), and the International Social Survey Program (ISSP; Levin 2014). ...
Satisfaction with life is a self-reported measure of the quality of life that has become a critical societal indicator extensively used for the evaluation and comparison of a wide range of trends and policies. This study fuses five cross-sectional travel surveys conducted from 1992 to 2018 across various geographical locations in California. Using the fused sample, we develop generalized ordered logit models to examine the effects of demographic characteristics, travel-related attributes, general and transport-related attitudinal variables, and context-control variables on individuals’ self-reported measures of life satisfaction. We find that longer commute times, mobility limitations, and a tendency to see travel as a waste of time are negatively associated with life satisfaction. To enable the use of disparate cross-sectional survey data, we incorporate context-control variables into the models. We find that life satisfaction appears to be increasing as GDP per capita increases. Among employed people, the macro-scale unemployment rate positively influences their life satisfaction. Interestingly, all else equal, we find that online opinion panel respondents have lower life satisfaction relative to respondents from other sampling methods (mainly address-based sampling), a finding that should be considered in future research using these sampling methods. Overall, this study provides a unique look at life satisfaction within a transport context, while providing an example of fusing small-scale survey datasets to study longitudinal, domain-specific, influences on variables like subjective well-being.
... The research shows that religion often strongly shapes many attitudes such as views on sexual morality (Adamczyk and Pitt 2009;Das, Eargle, and Butts 2011), abortion rights (Kim 2014), gender roles (Jennison 2012), and other issues (Br echon 2004;Brooks 2002, Paul 2005. In addition, religion is associated with well-being and happiness (Greenfield, Vaillant, and Marks 2009;Levin 2014;Megumi 2004). ...
... On the one hand, Israel's traditional society, its strong sense of unity and family, and its social resilience may serve as possible explanations for the study's findings. 24 On the other hand, half of the research population in the current study was comprised of older immigrants, who tend to be more depressed and whose quality of life, life satisfaction and sense of happiness are lower than the general population. 25 Previous studies 26,27 provide another possible explanation for the mediocre happiness levels found in this study. ...
Background: Investigating happiness among older adults is critical for enhancing quality of life among this growing segment of the population. Based on the stress, appraisal, and coping model, the present study examined how daily stressors and coping resources (optimism and social support) are related to happiness among older adults.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Israel between February–July 2018. Participants were recruited through Internet forums and through direct contact with participants at meeting places for older adults. A convenience sample of 114 older adults completed measures of daily stressors, optimism, social support, happiness, and socio-demographic questionnaires. A hierarchical multiple regression was calculated with happiness as the dependent variable.
Results: Happiness score was relatively moderate (Mean = 4.26, SD = 0.72, Range 1–7). In the regression model, after controlling for demographic variables, optimism and social support explained 58% of the variance in happiness. Optimism and social support also mediated the relationship between daily stressors and happiness. However, these two coping resources did not moderate the relationship between daily stressors and happiness.
Conclusion: The study’s findings indicate that improving happiness should be identified as a target for older adults and should be recognized as a crucial need. Our findings suggest that psychosocial interventions targeting coping resources may help older adults improve their happiness. In particular, these interventions should concentrate on helping older adults reinforce their optimism and social support
... Happiness, a feeling that everyone desires, is a psychological outcome (Rizvi and Hossain 2017), including the individual's cognitive judgments of satisfaction and the affective appraisals of emotions. Based on previous research, we learned that most researchers used a single self-report item to measure it (Abu-Raiya et al. 2016;Levin 2014). For example, Andrews and Withey (1976) asked respondents "How do you feel about your life as a whole?" with seven possible answers that ranged from delighted to terrible. ...
Although the positive relationship between religion and happiness has aroused heated debate, empirical studies on this are limited in the Chinese cultural context. Furthermore, there is a lack of heterogeneity analysis concerning this influence. This paper aims to address this gap in the existing literature. Using the Chinese General Social Survey data from 2015 for empirical analysis, the results show that people with religious beliefs have an increased probability of feeling very happy. This positive association does not exist in urban and eastern groups, but it still holds up in other remaining sub-samples (i.e., rural group). This study further finds that the effect of religiosity on happiness varies by different religious identification. Muslims are more likely to feel very happy compared with non-Muslims, but people of the Christian faith do not rate themselves higher on the happiness scale than non-Christians. Moreover, the results also reveal that religious involvement is significantly and positively related to happiness. Specifically, vulnerable groups are more likely to perceive themselves to be happier from continuous religious participation, whereas advantaged groups do not. This is because vulnerable groups generally have a lack of social security, and religious practices provide them with social support among their members. They therefore can enjoy larger and denser social networks. These are vital mechanisms for them to cope with stress and risk.
... Participating in religious activities is reported acquiring better subjective wellbeing [12].Accordingly [13] also reveals that there is positive significant between happiness, physical health, mental health and religiosity among Kuwait students.Apart from that, spiritual practice is closely related to subjective wellbeing [14]. It also contributes to positive psychological factors and assists them to handle stress and depression [15,16]. There has been very limited research about the specific happiness scale according to Islamic perspective [17], but the evidence from positive psychology suggests that we clearly would expect a tie between happiness and other Islamic contributors of happiness. ...
Happiness is negatively correlated with depression and anxiety. Likewise, self-esteem has close relationship with the element of happiness. Previous research mentioned that it possesses high correlations between measurement of happiness and self-esteem [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Thus, one aim of this study is to viewboth positive and negative aspects, by exploring the differential level of depression, self esteem and happiness on Muslim students.The method of this research is quantitative, and the respondents were selected in several states in Malaysia, which approximately 500 people. This research used Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS 21) and happiness instrument developed by the researcher based on al-Ghazali's concept of happiness. After conducting the descriptive analysis for every construct, this research used the average of construct, whereas to determine the correlation between depression and self-esteem aspects, pearson correlation has been computed and the result is significant which is r=-0.462, p<0.01]. It shows that the direction of relationship was found to be negative at the moderate level. As a conclusion, there is positive relationship with happiness and self esteem, and it negatively correlated with depression.
... A number of studies have found positive relationships between subjective well-being (SWB) and religiousness in various populations, regardless of the type of their religion: US Americans (Witter et al. 1985), Kuwaitis (Abdel-Khalek 2006), Iranians (Joshanloo 2011), Israeli Jews (Levin 2014), Israeli Palestinians (Abu-Raya 2016), and Greek Cypriots (Furnham and Christoforou 2007) among others. How exactly religiousness affects SWB is a controversial issue. ...
Numerous studies have reported a positive individual-level association between happiness and two psychologically distinct states of mind: religious faith and subjective freedom (a feeling of life control). Although the strength of these relationships varies across countries, no general pattern driving this variation has been shown so far. After surveying 40,534 randomly selected respondents from 43 nations, we find that in countries where happiness is more closely related to religious faith, it is less strongly associated with subjective freedom, and vice versa. We have also identified the driving force behind this inverse relationship. Rising individualism and emancipative values, as an outcome of modernization, diminish the importance of religious faith for people’s happiness, while increasing the importance of subjective freedom. We conclude that the dominant emancipatory direction of cultural evolution favors freedom over religion.
... The positive association between religiosity and happiness is well documented (e.g., Lim and Putnam 2010;Sander 2017). Levin (2013aLevin ( , 2013bLevin ( , 2014 and van Praag, Romanov, and Ferrer-i-Carbonell (2010) report a positive association between religiosity and OLS among Israeli Jews. The ISS asked Jewish respondents to define themselves as 'Ultra-Orthodox,' 'religious,' 'traditional but religious,' 'traditional but not so religious' or 'nonreligious/secular.' ...
... Since it is high income that gives rise to widening opportunities of life, change in emancipative values is a link in the evolutionary logic of the income-happiness relationship in this model. Some of other studies that have found the culture as important determinants of happiness are: Heukamp and Arino (2011) who found that a dominant Muslim society has a negative impact on happiness; in the Muslim society, the religious affiliation is one of predictors of happiness (Suhail and Chaudhry 2004); Uchida et al. (2004) who found that the predictors of happiness are cultural divergent; Lu and Gilmour (2004) who found that the cultural differences play an important role in happiness; Veenhoven (1998) found more individualism society has higher level of happiness; secularism is found to have significant influence to life satisfaction (Li and Bond 2010); high religiousness is associated with high happiness in Jewish society (Levin 2014); religion diversity has a U-shape impact on happiness (Opfinger 2014); in India, a multi-religious country, being a minority and discriminated religion society reduces happiness (Migheli 2009). ...
During the last two decades, economic studies on happiness have grown rapidly in particular, studies on the effect of income on happiness. Ng (Pac Econ Rev 7(1):51–63, 2002) has highlighted the East-Asian happiness gap. The East Asian countries, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, are performing well economically, however, performing poorly in happiness. Societal values have been suggested to be the potential explanation of this happiness gap. Nevertheless, the effects of societal values on happiness are yet to be explored fully. This paper aims to estimate the effect of income on happiness and examine the moderating effect of societal values in the context of the East-Asian happiness gap using the World Values Survey (WVS) data. The WVS (waves 6, 2010–2014) consists of nationally representative sample of 14,447 respondents from the various East and South Asian countries. It provides measurements of societal values, subjective well-being and other socio-demographic variables including income. We found that the effect of income on happiness is the lowest (and insignificant) in Thailand and Philippines; and the highest (and strongly significant) in South Korea and Taiwan. The effect of income becomes insignificant once it is moderated by the societal values. Societal values matter to explain the East-Asian happiness gap and might refute the relevance of Easterlin paradox.
... Studies have found positive correlations between religiosity and happiness among Christians (Robbins, Francis, & Edwards, 2008), Jews (Francis, Katz, Yablon, & Robbins, 2004;Levin, 2013), andMuslims (Abdel-Khalek, 2006;Agbaria, 2013;Aghili & Kumar, 2008). Nevertheless, Lewis and Cruise (2006) found some contradictions with regard to the correlation between religiosity and happiness. ...
Religiosity takes various forms even within the same religion. This study aimed to develop and validate a Kurdish scale for assessing religiosity. A total sample of 469 Muslim students took part in the study. A convenient sample of 249 university students responded to the initial form of the scale. The scale had good test–retest reliability and internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis yielded four factors, namely relationship with Allah, commitment to religious teachings, belonging, and forgiveness and love. Another sample of 220 university students answered three sets of questionnaires; Kurdish Religiosity Scale as well as Oxford Happiness Inventory and Perceived Stress Scale. Religiosity was positively correlated with happiness and negatively with perceived stress.
... On the other hand, religion enhances wellbeing because it offers a sense of meaning and purpose, and acts as a moral compass in this as well as the 'after-life' (Greeley and Hout 2006). What is striking however is that we can find evidence of both intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of religion in all of the world's major religions including Islam (Sahraian et al. 2013), Hinduism (Ganga and Kutty 2013), Judaism (Levin 2014), Buddhism (Elliot 2014), and Christianity (Steiner et al. 2010). Although the effects of religion on wellbeing are generally reported as being positive, there are important counter observations. ...
Research into the relation between religion and happiness offers inconclusive evidence. Religion seems to matter but it is not entirely clear how and why. Moreover much of the research to date is rooted in western experiences. This article analyzes primary data from Bangladesh to examine how religion figures in people’s wellbeing and life chances. It identifies differences in reported happiness between the country’s two largest religious populations: Muslims and Hindus. Our main argument is that the significance of religion is only really understood when considered alongside social, economic and political processes. The data and analysis make an important contribution to the limited knowledge we have of the relation between religion, political connectedness and happiness in non-western societies. It also highlights the need to incorporate more contextualizing analyses into our assessments of the relation between religion and happiness.
... This categorization originates from the fact that religiosity, distinct from other human values, is a stable and observable phenomenon across long-time periods (McDaniel and Burnett 1990). Although 78 % of 224 new studies on the religiosity-SWB association that have appeared between 1990 and 2012 report statistically significant findings (Koenig et al. 2012), most were based on nonsamples and/or unrepresentative slices of the population (Levin 2014;Stark and Maier 2008). Subsequent studies perpetuate the tradition of employing unrepresentative slices of the population by relying on student samples both in the examination pertinent to Judeo-Christianity (e.g., Gauthier et al. 2006;Sillick and Cathcart 2013;Snoep 2008;Francis et al. 2014) and Islam (e.g., Francis et al. 2016;Sahraian et al. 2011). ...
In this paper we employ a unique data set of 413 adults and scrutinize over the linear
and non-linear relationship of religious adherence to life satisfaction. The findings
confirm the previous studies regarding the positive linear and curvilinear relationship
between the uni-dimensional religiosity and subjective well-being. To deepen the
understanding of the relationship between religiosity and subjective well-being, the
authors make use of a multi-dimensional religiosity scale. Via dissecting religiosity into
different dimensions, we show when life satisfaction is in negative, positive, linear
and/or curvilinear relationship with religiosity. The empirical evidence shows that the
relationships between the dimensions of religiosity on life satisfaction are non-linear.
Specifically, we demonstrate that there exist non-linear relations of ideological and
consequential dimensions of religiosity to life satisfaction.
... So far, this project has identified significant effects of Jewish religious observance on self-rated health and presence of an activity-limiting health condition in the U.S. [34], on happiness and life satisfaction in Israel and in the diaspora [35], and on psychological well-being and psychological distress [36], health and well-being [37], happiness [38], and numerous measures of physical and mental health [39,40] in Israel. For the most part, though not exclusively, greater religiousness is associated on average with better health and well-being and less psychological distress. ...
This study reports on analyses of Jewish respondents (N = 6,056) from the 2009 Israel Social Survey. Multivariable methods were used to investigate whether religiously observant Jews have greater physical and psychological well-being. After adjustment for age and other sociodemographic correlates of religion and well-being and for a measure of Israeli Jewish religious identity (i.e., secular, traditional, religious, ultra-Orthodox), two findings stand out. First, greater Jewish religious observance is significantly associated with higher scores on indicators of self-rated health, functional health, and life satisfaction. Second, there is a gradient-like trend such that greater religiousness and life satisfaction are observed as one moves "rightward" across religious identity categories. These findings withstand adjustment for effects of all covariates, including Israeli nativity and Jewish religious identity.
The single, unmarried, unpartnered, childless, woman physician whether single by choice or by circumstance is a phenomenon to which the culture and workplace are still adapting. She has defied cultural traditions and norms in the pursuit of dedicating herself to her calling as a healer. She manages her work and all of life outside of work, and she does it all alone. She can experience vulnerability, isolation, and loneliness. She strives to cultivate for herself a positive self-image, an attitude of positivity, and a network of social capital that may include family or a “family of friends.” She avoids becoming “married to work,” by taking herself by the hand, knowing that her independence, health, and success are best supported by her interdependence within her greater workplace and social community. She is a catalyst for change, an example of what is possible, and a flourishing queen for such a time as this.
Although previous research suggests that religion contributes to greater life satisfaction, there is still disagreement about what aspects of religion predict greater life satisfaction. Despite a growing body of theory and research on emerging adulthood as a life stage that is distinct from adolescence and young adulthood, there has also been limited research on the relationship between religion and life satisfaction among emerging adults. Based on the third wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion, our results suggest that two measures of private religiosity, private devotion and religious efficacy, are significantly related to greater life satisfaction among emerging adults. In contrast, other dimensions of private and public religiosity, such as participation in organised religion, religious salience, otherworldly beliefs, and number of religious friends, are not related to greater life satisfaction. Finally, among emerging adults, being spiritual but not religious is not significantly related to life satisfaction.
The effect of religion on happiness in the United States is examined. Particular attention is given to the direct effect of religion on attending religious services and the indirect effect on happiness. The key results include Catholic, Jewish, and no religion having negative effects on happiness relative to Protestants. Data from the National Opinion Research Center’s “General Social Survey” are used.
Research findings on religion and health among Jews are in relatively short supply. While recent studies report on the health of Israelis and the mental health of Jews in the USA, little information exists on the physical health of US Jews, especially from population surveys. In this study, data are analyzed from five urban surveys of Jews conducted since 2000: two surveys from New York (N = 4,533; N = 5,993) and one apiece from Chicago (N = 1,993), Philadelphia (N = 1,217), and Boston (N = 1,766). A strategy of two-way ANCOVA with interaction was used to test for differences in self-rated health across five categories of Jewish religious affiliation (secular, Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox) and four categories of synagogue attendance (from never to at least weekly). Findings, adjusted for age and effects of other covariates, reveal that affiliated and synagogue-attending Jews report moderately better health than secular and non-attending Jews.
Happiness is the main goal; most individuals reach out for a happy life and many policy makers aim at greater happiness for a greater number. This pursuit of happiness calls for understanding of conditions for happiness and for that reason the subject has received much attention in the history of western thought. The study of happiness has long been a playground for philosophical speculation. Due to the lack of empirical measures of happiness, it was not possible to check propositions about the matter. Hence, understanding of happiness remained speculative and uncertain. During the last decades, survey-research methods introduced by the social sciences have brought a breakthrough. Dependable measures of happiness have developed, by means of which a significant body of knowledge has evolved. This chapter presents an account on this field. The literature on happiness can be framed within some key questions that can be ordered as steps in the process for creating greater happiness for a greater number. (1) What is happiness precisely? (2) Can happiness be measured? (3) How happy are people presently? (4) What causes us to be happy or unhappy? (5) Can happiness be raised lastingly?
What is the strength and direction of the relation between religion and subjective well-being in adulthood? We addressed this question by performing a quantitative research synthesis (meta-analysis). The dependent variable was zero-order correlations between religion and subjective well-being. Independent variables were measure, sample, and study characteristics. We found that religion was significantly, positively related to subjective well-being. The relation between religion and subjective well-being is stronger for religious activity than for religiosity measures. The relation is stronger for samples of older than younger adults. The strength of the religion/subjective well-being relation has decreased over time. Religion accounts for between 2 and 6 percent of the variance in adult subjective well-being.
This paper explores the manner in which Jewish community contexts relate to Jewish identity. We employ the Decade 2000 Data Set that contains almost 20,000 randomly selected Jewish households from 22 American Jewish communities interviewed from 2000 to 2010. Because of the large sample size, and its incorporation of community infrastructure data, this research also is able to examine various influences on Jewish identity that have not been definitively addressed in previous research, including the manner in which characteristics of Jewish community infrastructure are related to individuals’ Jewish identity. The Decade 2000 Data Set used for the analysis is described and some of the methodological considerations involved in its use are presented. Jewish identity is conceptualized as multidimensional, and a factor analysis results in four Jewish identity factors: a communal religious factor, a private religious factor, a broader ethnic factor, and a local ethnic factor. Multiple regressions for each of the Jewish identity factors are related to Jewish community characteristics; more commonly researched individual-level variables (Jewish background and connections, family status, socioeconomic status, demographic/geographic characteristics); and survey-level variables (such as size of sample and year of study) are also controlled. Surprisingly, except for the local ethnic factor, Jewish community characteristics have little relationship to individual Jewish identity. The contributions to a “sociology of Jewish place” and suggestions for further research are also discussed.
W. Wilson's (1967) review of the area of subjective well-being (SWB) advanced several conclusions regarding those who report high levels of "happiness." A number of his conclusions have been overturned: youth and modest aspirations no longer are seen as prerequisites of SWB. E. Diener's (1984) review placed greater emphasis on theories that stressed psychological factors. In the current article, the authors review current evidence for Wilson's conclusions and discuss modern theories of SWB that stress dispositional influences, adaptation, goals, and coping strategies. The next steps in the evolution of the field are to comprehend the interaction of psychological factors with life circumstances in producing SWB, to understand the causal pathways leading to happiness, understand the processes underlying adaptation to events, and develop theories that explain why certain variables differentially influence the different components of SWB (life satisfaction, pleasant affect, and unpleasant affect). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examines the integration of immigrants via their satisfaction with life in the new country. While most studies
on immigrant integration have focused on objective integration parameters such as education, occupation and salary (e.g.,
Borjas in Friends or strangers: the impact of immigrants on the US economy. Basic Books, New York, 1990), subjective parameters have traditionally received less attention. However, in recent years it has become increasingly clear
that subjective perceptions carry considerable weight in the social-integration process of immigrants (McMichael and Manderson
in Human Organ 63(1):88–99, 2004; Massey and Redstone in Soc Sci Q 87(5):954–971, 2006). The study group consists of Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel during the past two decades from two different regions
of origin: Western countries, and the Former Soviet Union (FSU). All of these immigrants are generally highly educated and
skilled, but they came to Israel from different societies and contrasting motives. The objective of this study is to learn
about the integration of these immigrants via their satisfaction with life in Israel and to understand the factors that explain
it, taking into account the differences between the immigrant groups. The findings, based on the 2007 Ruppin representative
survey data (The data for this study was obtained with the support of the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.), point
to significant differences between the two immigrant groups under discussion. Western immigrants are more satisfied with their
lives in Israel than FSU immigrants and have higher scores in most of the independent variables tested. The multivariate analyses
for predicting an immigrant’s life satisfaction reveal that those reporting the greatest satisfaction are women, religious,
with a high standard of living, with no academic education, and stronger Israeli identity (personal and as perceived by others).
In addition, different variables play a role in predicting the life satisfaction for each immigrant group. This knowledge
may be of service to Israeli policymakers dealing with the immigration and integration of highly skilled immigrants in Israeli
society.
KeywordsLife satisfaction-Immigration-Social integration
The literature on subjective well-being (SWB), including happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect, is reviewed in three areas: measurement, causal factors, and theory. Psychometric data on single-item and multi-item subjective well-being scales are presented, and the measures are compared. Measuring various components of subjective well-being is discussed. In terms of causal influences, research findings on the demographic correlates of SWB are evaluated, as well as the findings on other influences such as health, social contact, activity, and personality. A number of theoretical approaches to happiness are presented and discussed: telic theories, associationistic models, activity theories, judgment approaches, and top-down versus bottom-up conceptions.
Twenty-four years of the General Social Surveys are analyzed to test eight hypotheses derived from the scattered literature on religion and happiness. The hypothesis that religiousness is positively related to happiness is supported, as is the hypothesis that the religious effect is primarily "social." Five other hypotheses are rejected and a sixth one partly so.
This chapter defends the legitimacy of measurements concerned with religious beliefs. It shows the difficulty of this measure but also its great interest. To do this, it compares some questions from the 1999 European Values Survey to the 1998 International Social Survey Programme (such as the belief in God, the strength and intensity of this belief, the belief in life after death, in Paradise, in Hell and the Devil). The comparison is carried out in eleven European countries. As the wording of questions is not the same in the two surveys, the results are not identical for a given country when the same dimension is measured. But, on the indicators of beliefs selected, the countries are classified in more or less the same order from the most to the least believing. And no matter whether the EVS or ISSP indicator is used, the same system of relationships can be observed with independent variables. The last part of the paper tries to explain how it would be possible to improve questionnaires about religion and shows what kind of knowledge will be bettered on this subject with the new 2008 ISSP survey.
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This book, the first of its kind, reviews and discusses the full range of research on religion and a variety of mental and physical health outcomes. Based on this research, the authors build theoretical models illustrating the various behavioural, psychological, and physiological pathways by which religion might affect health. They also review research that has explored the impact of religious affiliation, belief, and practice one use of health services and compliance with medical treatment. Finally, they discuss the implications of these findings, examine a number of possible clinical applications, and make recommendations for future research in this area
According to Google Scholar, the 1st edition of the Handbook, published in 2001, is the most cited of any book or research article on religion and health in the past forty years (Google 2011). This new edition is completely re-written, and in fact, really serves as a second volume to the 1st edition. The 2nd edition focuses on the latest research published since the year 2000 and therefore complements the 1st edition that examined research prior to that time. Both volumes together provide a full survey of research published from 1872 through 2010 -- describing and synthesizing results from over 3,000 studies. The Second Edition covers the latest original quantitative scientific research, and therefore will be of greatest use to religion/spirituality-health researchers and educators. Together with the First Edition, this Second Edition will save a tremendous amount of time in locating studies done worldwide, as well as provide not only updated research citations but also explain the scientific rationale on which such relationships might exist. This volume will also be of interest to health professionals and religious professionals wanting to better understand these connections, and even laypersons who desire to learn more about how R/S influences health.
Four measures of religiosity drawn from the NORC General Social Survey, 1972-1977 (N = 1493 @ 65+) were examined to determine how well they predicted thirteen self-report questions on personal well-being, life satisfaction, and world-view of elderly persons. Only the measure of FREQUENCY OF CHURCH ATTENDANCE--which may be more closely tied to physical health than to religious feeling--resulted in consistent associations with well-being, especially among older women and whites. By contrast, BELIEF IN LIFE AFTER DEATH was shown to be a much stronger and more discriminating predictor of both well-being and Weltanschauung.
This study investigates the relationship between religious behavior and health status and psychological well-being in a population sample of Israeli Jewish adults (N = 1,849). Using data from the Israeli sample of the European Social Survey, measures of synagogue attendance and private prayer were examined in relation to single-item indicators of subjective and functional health, happiness, and life satisfaction and to a three-item scale tapping into the somatic dimension of well-being. Bivariately, the religious, health, and well-being measures are mostly related, and in a salutary direction, but multivariable analyses revealed that these associations are more nuanced. Specifically, after age-adjustment and controls for effects of various sociodemographic characteristics, including Israeli nativity, synagogue attendance is associated with greater happiness only, whereas prayer is associated with greater happiness and life satisfaction and higher scores on the well-being scale. Additionally, prayer is significantly associated with functional health, but in an inverse direction, suggesting its use as a coping resource in response to physical or functional challenges or impairments. These latter results are supported by supplemental analyses of the well-being indicators, which also adjust for possible exogenous or moderating effects of functional health. These findings contribute to current streams of empirical research on the putative influence of Jewish religious observance on physical and mental health and psychological well-being in Israel and the Jewish diaspora. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examines the impact of the strength of religious affiliation on attitudes toward life satisfaction. The data are taken from the 1984 NORC survey. All things considered, religious persons should be happier, more satisfied, and more fulfilled than the nonreligious. This general assertion is tested with respect to happiness, family satisfaction, health satisfaction, and life excitement. The predicted association holds generally for happiness, family satisfaction, and life excitement. These three associations are confirmed under several, but not all, of the control conditions. Health satisfaction, by contrast, appears to be independent of the strength of an individual's religious affiliation.
This study investigates the impact of religiousness on mental health indicators in a population sample of Israeli Jews aged 50 or older. Data are from the Israel sample of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-Israel), collected from 2005 to 2006. Of the 1,287 Jewish respondents, 473 (36.8 %) were native-born Israelis and 814 (63.2 %) were diaspora-born. Religious measures included past-month synagogue activities, current prayer, and having received a religious education. Mental health outcomes included single-item measures of lifetime depression and life satisfaction, along with the CES-D and EURO-D depression scales, the CASP-12 quality of life scale, and the LOT-R optimism scale. Participation in synagogue activities was found to be significantly associated with less depression, better quality of life, and more optimism, even after adjusting for effects of the other religious measures, for sociodemographic covariates, for the possibly confounding effect of age-related activity limitation, and for nativity. Findings for prayer were less consistent, including inverse associations with mental health, perhaps reflecting prayer’s use as a coping response. Finally, religious education was associated with greater optimism. These results underscore a modest contribution of religious participation to well-being among middle-aged and older adults, extending this research to the Israeli and Jewish populations.
This paper attempts to explain the conceptual connections between happiness and well-being. It first distinguishes episodic happiness from happiness in the personal attribute sense. It then evaluates two recent proposals about the connection between happiness and well-being: (1) the idea that episodic happiness and well-being both have the same fundamental determinants, so that a person is well-off to a particular degree in virtue of the fact that they are happy to that degree, and (2) the idea that happiness in the personal attribute sense can serve as a “proxy” for well-being, i.e., that a person’s degree of deep or robust happiness approximates their degree of well-being. It is argued that happiness in both these senses is conceptually, metaphysically, and empirically distinct from well-being. A new analysis of welfare, well-being as agential flourishing, can explain welfare’s real connection to happiness in both the episodic and personal attribute senses. It predicts that such happiness is only directly beneficial when it is valued, when it is a form of valuing, or when it underwrites (i.e., serves as the causal basis for) the disposition to realize one’s values. It is therefore a necessary—but not sufficient—condition for especially high levels of well-being. This analysis of welfare integrates many insights from the eudaimonic tradition of welfare and happiness research in psychology, and also addresses common criticisms of these eudaimonic models.
The relationship between religion and happiness has been the focus of much research. The present review provides a critical examination of this research and, in particular, focuses on conceptual and methodological concerns. The majority of studies report a positive association between measures of religion and happiness; however, contradictory findings are common. This is exemplified in the literature that has systematically employed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity alongside two different measures of happiness among a variety of samples. Two opposing conclusions have found consistent support. Research with the Oxford Happiness Inventory has consistently found religiosity to be associated with happiness, while research employing the Depression–Happiness Scale has consistently found no association. It is argued that such contradictions may reflect both conceptual and methodological weaknesses in this literature.
Psychological science has consistently highlighted links between gratitude and religion, however mediating pathways by which religion relates to gratitude remain ambiguous. Further, it is unclear whether religious gratitude (e.g., gratitude to God) is more related to well-being than general gratitude. To address these gaps, we assessed for both religious and general dimensions of gratitude alongside measures of religious commitment and mental/physical well-being in a diverse sample of n = 405 adult individuals. Consistent with previous research, gratitude was positively correlated with religious commitment (r = 0.45, p
This study investigates the impact of selected religious indicators on two measures of positive well-being among Jews. Using data from subsamples of Jewish respondents from Israel (N = 1,023) and the diaspora (N = 859) taken from the World Values Survey, single-item measures of happiness and life satisfaction were regressed onto six measures of religiousness in the diaspora sample and onto the one religious measure available in the Israeli sample, adjusting for effects of age, gender, marital status, education, employment, and social class. Among Israeli Jews, affirming the importance of God in one's life is modestly associated with greater life satisfaction (β = 0.07, p
Although social scientists have convincingly demonstrated relationships between religious beliefs/practices and mental health, almost none of the empirical findings or related theory apply specifically to Jews. To address this limitation, we investigated the role of Jewish religiousness in anxiety, depression, and happiness, in a large Jewish community sample (n = 565). Several facets of global Jewish religiousness were examined, as well as a theoretically based Jewish religious variable, trust in God. A self-report measure of trust in God was created, and factor analyses yielded two reliable and valid subscales: trust in God and mistrust in God. Contrary to our hypotheses, global Jewish religiousness was on the whole unrelated to mental-health functioning. As expected, higher levels of trust in God were associated with less anxiety and depression, and greater personal happiness, whereas inverse associations emerged for the unanticipated but robust mistrust subscale.
A flood of new studies explores people's subjective well-being (SWB) Frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect, and a global sense of satisfaction with life define high SWB These studies reveal that happiness and life satisfaction are similarly available to the young and the old, women and men, blacks and whites, the rich and the working-class Better clues to well-being come from knowing about a person's traits, close relationships, work experiences, culture, and religiosity We present the elements of an appraisal-based theory of happiness that recognizes the importance of adaptation, cultural world-view, and personal goals
This paper is about the logic of interpreting recursive causal theories in sociology. We review the distinction between associations and effects and discuss the decomposition of effects into direct and indirect components. We then describe a general method for decomposing effects into their components by the systematic application of ordinary least squares regression. The method involves successive computation of reduced-form equations, beginning with an equation containing only exogenous variables, then computing equations which add intervening variables in sequence from cause to effect. This generates all the information required to decompose effects into their various direct and indirect parts. This method is a substitute for the often more cumbersome computation of indirect effects from the structural coefficients (direct effects) of the causal model. Finally, we present a way of summarizing this information in tabular form and illustrate the procedures using an empirical example.
The indirect effect in path analysis has been defined as equal to the difference between the correlation coefficient and the path coefficient. This definition has led to ambiguous and inconsistent interpretations of indirect effects across various applications. This paper shows that what was earlier defined as the indirect effect may, in fact, be composed of three parts: (1) the indirect effect, (2) spurious association due to joint dependence on a prior variable, and (3) association due to the correlation between predetermined variables. We argue for a redefinition of the indirect effect so that only those paths which can be traced through intervening variables are included in the indirect effect term. Indirect effects can then be interpreted consistently across all applications as being indirect causal effects.
This paper furthers our understanding of American religious pluralism by analyzing Jewish denominational patterns as revealed by data from the National Jewish Population Survey. A clear ranking among the denominational subgroups emerges, ranging from those identifying with Orthodoxy, to those identifying with Conservative Judaism, Reform, and finally those having no denominational preferences. This last group has the lowest levels of religious and ethnic identification. The subgroups closer to the Orthodox pole have higher levels of Jewish identification and observance, and are somewhat lower in socioeconomic status and voluntary association activities. The socioeconomic differences are considerably smaller than they are known to have been historically, but differences in the degree of Americanization, as indicated by the number of generations in the United States, remain strong. The data also show that marital patterns and certain secular attitudes and behavior are associated with denominational identification and synagogue membership. Analogies are suggested between the ideological and behavioral divisions within American Judaism and those found in Protestantism. Our findings point to the durability of a denominationalism which is becoming increasingly independent of its classic social and economic sources.
Reviews the literature since 1967 on subjective well-being (SWB [including happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect]) in 3 areas: measurement, causal factors, and theory. Most measures of SWB correlate moderately with each other and have adequate temporal reliability and internal consistency; the global concept of happiness is being replaced with more specific and well-defined concepts, and measuring instruments are being developed with theoretical advances; multi-item scales are promising but need adequate testing. SWB is probably determined by a large number of factors that can be conceptualized at several levels of analysis, and it may be unrealistic to hope that a few variables will be of overwhelming importance. Several psychological theories related to happiness have been proposed; they include telic, pleasure and pain, activity, top–down vs bottom–up, associanistic, and judgment theories. It is suggested that there is a great need to more closely connect theory and research. (7 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Despite decades of research on religious determinants of health, this subject has not been systematically investigated within Jewish populations, in Israel or the diaspora. The present paper is part of a series of studies using large-scale population data sources to map the impact of religiousness on the physical and mental health of Jews.
To identify religious predictors of physical health in a national probability sample of older Israeli Jews.
The data derive from the Israeli sample of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a cross-national survey program involving nearly a dozen nations. The Israeli sample comprises 1287 Jewish respondents aged 50 or over. Outcome measures include single-item assessments of self-rated health, long-term health problems, and activity limitation, as well as validated measures of diagnosed chronic diseases, physical symptoms, and activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL (IADL).
Recent synagogue attendance is a significant predictor of better health for six of the seven health measures, even after adjusting for age and several other covariates and mediators, including measures of health-related behavior and social support. Prayer, by contrast, is inversely associated with health according to five measures, perhaps reflecting its use as a coping mechanism for individuals with health problems.
This study presents modest evidence of a salutary effect of Jewish religiousness on this population of older adults. Religiousness, in the form of synagogue participation, was seen to serve a protective function, and prayer a coping function.
This article presents results of an NIA-funded systematic review of research on religion and aging published from 1980–1994 in mainstream gerontology and religion journals, including the Journal of Religious Gerontology. Findings are summarized from 73 empirical studies, a subset of the 115 articles included in NIA's bibliography on this topic. In general, these studies use multiethnic samples, include multiple religious dimensions, and focus on age comparative analyses and on analyses of religious effects on life satisfaction, health, and well-being. Also summarized is gerontological research on patterns, predictors, outcomes, and measures of religious involvement, and an agenda for future research is proposed.
The three subscales of the Religious Support Scale assess perceived support from a person’s religious community, religious leaders, and God. This three-factor structure was replicated in the current study with a sample of 277 religious Jewish persons residing in Israel. Hierarchical canonical analysis showed that, even after controlling for general social support, Religious Leader and God Support were related to lower emotional distress, Religious Leader and Religious Community Support contributed to a higher level of life satisfaction, and Religious Community and God Support contributed to the prediction of perceived health. Findings are discussed in terms of religious support’s generalizability as a psychosocial resource for persons of various faiths.
Reigning measures of psychological well-being have little theoretical grounding, despite an extensive literature on the contours of positive functioning. Aspects of well-being derived from this literature (i.e., self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth) were operationalized. Three hundred and twenty-one men and women, divided among young, middle-aged, and older adults, rated themselves on these measures along with six instruments prominent in earlier studies (i.e., affect balance, life satisfaction, self-esteem, morale, locus of control, depression). Results revealed that positive relations with others, autonomy, purpose in life, and personal growth were not strongly tied to prior assessment indexes, thereby supporting the claim that key aspects of positive functioning have not been represented in the empirical arena. Furthermore, age profiles revealed a more differentiated pattern of well-being than is evident in prior research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although considerable evidence has linked religious beliefs to mental health among Protestant Christians, previous theory and research has emphasized that practices play a more important role than beliefs for Jews. Beliefs about God’s benevolence may be salient for Orthodox Jews, however, as such beliefs are central to traditional Jewish doctrine. Two studies were conducted to compare the extent to which religious beliefs predicted depression and anxiety for Orthodox Jews, non-Orthodox Jews, and Protestants. Results indicated that beliefs were salient for Orthodox Jews and Protestants, and less relevant for non-Orthodox Jews. Among Orthodox Jews, religious beliefs remained a significant predictor of anxiety and depression after controlling for religious practices. Implications for clinical treatment of Jewish individuals are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined among 639 Jewish retirees (aged 60+ yrs) the relationships between self-rated religiosity (independent variable) and physical and psychological well-being and life satisfaction (dependent variables), using data from a longitudinal study. Findings indicate that self-rated religiosity remained stable, and religiosity did not contribute much to adjustment as measured by life satisfaction. However, while religiosity was only weakly and inversely related to health and psychological distress, poor well-being at Time 1 and decline in well-being during the follow-up year led to an increase in religiosity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This chapter looks at the International Social Survey Programme’s (ISSP) ability to produce cross-national comparable data, and discusses some major methodological challenges that the organization will face in the coming years. In general, the focus is on what is considered to be the most fundamental issue of equivalence, namely, questionnaire development and design. Mode of administration is the methodological aspect in social surveys that is most closely related to how substance and stimulus are presented to respondents in questions and response scales, and is the last issue raised in the chapter. The chapter suggests how an increased focus on translation may improve instrument equivalence. cross-spectrum; surveys
This paper investigates the relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction in 79 nations using World Values Survey data. Extant literature analyzes religiosity and life satisfaction at person-level. But religiosity is an attribute of both, persons and societies. To solve methodological problems evident in previous work a random coefficient multilevel model is employed to account for the fact that individuals are nested within countries. This study shows that the relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction is bimodal. Religious people tend to be either very satisfied or dissatisfied with life. The relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction is also two-dimensional. Forms of religiosity that promote social capital predict high life satisfaction. People have so called 'need to belong' and religion helps to satisfy it. On the other hand, forms of religiosity that do not promote social capital do not predict high life satisfaction. Religiosity is also context-dependent. Religious people are happier in religious nations. In other words, it is not only religiosity per se that makes people happy, but rather a social setting it offers.
Many international surveys include batteries of questions which are combined to form scales by secondary analysts who often treat these scales as unproblematic. However, to be able to make valid cross-national comparisons of values on scales such as these, we need to be sure that the variations genuinely reflect differences in populations rather than being due to various forms of error. In order to illustrate the kinds of problems that can occur, and to explore ways of dealing with them, we examine items from the 2003 ISSP module on national identity. We show that differences between countries in response rates and other features of survey design are associated with the substantive outcomes and that ignoring these methodological problems will affect the validity of cross-national comparisons. We also examine whether the items can be assumed to have equivalence of meaning across the different countries in terms of their contributions to measuring two dimensions of national identity: civic and ethnic. We conclude that certain items do not seem to have the same meaning in all countries, thus jeopardizing the validity of cross-national comparisons using these scales. We suggest that the methods used and the lessons to be learnt can be applied to other items and cross-national datasets.
This article provides an overview of psychiatric and mental health research on religion. First, conceptual models of religion and of mental health used throughout this literature are described. Second, published empirical research in this field is summarized, including findings from epidemiologic, clinical, and social and behavioral investigations. Third, promising theoretical perspectives for understanding a putative religion–mental health connection are elaborated. These are based on respective behavioral, biological, psychodynamic, and transpersonal interpretations of existing research findings. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Studies on subjective well-being (SWB) suggest that its cognitive aspect, or life satisfaction, is positively correlated with age, whereas its affective aspect, often separated into positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), is negatively correlated with age. Gender differences in SWB are usually small. The present study attempted to explore these trends in an Israeli sample of 447 community-dwelling people aged 21 to 87, with special reference to relatively unattended issues as the effect of control variables on the affective aspect and the feasible age by gender interaction in SWB. The results showed that Cantril's Self-Anchoring Scale (SAS), Bradburn's Affect Balance Scale (ABS), and Neugarten et al.'s Life Satisfaction Index A (LSIA) were all significantly and negatively correlated with age. No significant gender differences emerged, but a significant age by gender interaction was found in SAS and LSIA. Controlling for personal variables (education, health, place of birth, and marital status) could wipe out the age effects on SAS and LSIA, but not on ABS. By the same procedure, the age by gender interaction could be wiped out in SAS, and substantially reduced in LSIA. The age effect on ABS was mainly due to PA, rather than NA. The results indicate the differential impact of personal variables on the aspects of SWB. Refering to the Israeli context, it seems that both cohort- and aging-related variables account for the decline of life satisfaction in the older subjects. Age-associated decline of affect is apparently connected to some other adaptive mechanisms, which regulate both positive and negative affect in old age.
Although happiness as a state of mind may be universal, its meaning takes culture-specific forms. Drawing on the concept of
folk theories, this study attempted to uncover lay beliefs about the nature of happiness in Germany and South Africa. To that
end, 57 German and 44 black South African students wrote free-format essays in response to the question: “What is happiness
to you?” Using thematic analysis the following themes were found: (1) satisfaction; (2) contentment; (3) positive affect;
(4) social relationships; (5) freedom; and (6) the opposite of unhappiness. In addition, German respondents defined happiness
in terms of (7) surprising events. The exact meaning content of the above-mentioned dimensions showed clear influences of
individualism/collectivism. However, strong culture-specific factors, such as the influence of philosophical traditions, material
living circumstances and linguistic influences, were also found.
Our intent in this study was to investigate structural relationships among happiness scales, and to determine whether the happiness construct could be represented adequately by a single score index. Second order principal factors analyses were computed on six data sets representing eight samples of subjects where the variables were comprised of global or sub-global indices of happiness. Single factor solutions were obtained from every analysis. The findings were interpreted as, (1) supporting a hierarchical, rather than an orthogonal multicomponent, model of relationships among happiness scales and, (2) indicating that the construct can be represented adequately by a single score index in social indicators research.