Iraq, SARS, terrorism, a faltering economy, national image problems, moral decline — Americans have plenty on their minds these days. However, a large majority of Americans is generally comfortable with their quality of life at the moment, according to a new survey released by the Barna Research Group of Ventura, California.
Most Americans Are Happy
Two out of three adults (66%) strongly affirmed that they are “very happy” with their current life, while another one out of four (22%) agreed somewhat with that notion — a total of nearly nine out of ten adults (88%) claiming they are happy with their life as it is.
A similar proportion of adults either agreed strongly (68%) or agreed somewhat (24%) that they “feel personally connected to other people.” Again, that represents nine out of ten adults (92%) who feel integrated into the lives of others.
Most people feel as if they have life under control. With so much attention devoted to the complexity of life in the new millennium, and the massive volumes of information that are available, some social scientists have argued that people are increasingly paralyzed by the stress of managing such a high-complexity/high-demand culture. Most Americans, apparently, disagree. Six out of ten (61%) agreed strongly that they “manage information and knowledge effectively”; another one-third (31%) agree somewhat that they manage the flow wisely.
Evidence of that capacity for control is seen in the fact that although two-thirds of all adults believe that religion is losing its influence in our society (66%), an even higher proportion of adults (70%) argues that they are effectively bucking that trend and their “religious faith is constantly growing deeper.”
Further insight into the comfort Americans feel is shown by the fact that they are cognizant of but not feeling overwhelmed by stress or complexity. For instance, only one out of every four adults (25%) agreed strongly that their life “keeps getting more stressful with each passing year” and just half as many (13%) agreed strongly that “life has become too complex to really understand.”
The one area tested in which Americans do admit to feeling challenged relates to their health. Only one-third of adults (36%) agreed strongly that they are presently in “excellent physical condition.”
Religion and Money Make the Most Difference
The survey explored the affect of people’s demographic and religious backgrounds on their views. For the most part, such background traits showed little connection to people’s attitudes. Differences in age, gender, marital status, the presence of children in the household, region of residence, and political ideology had little impact on quality of life perceptions. Racial and ethnic affiliations exhibited a limited association with such views.
There were two areas, however, which showed strong relationships to such attitudes: people’s religious and socioeconomic standing.
Religious faith showed a significant correlation with life perspectives. Evangelicals, for instance were substantially more likely than any other faith segment to strongly assert that they were very happy with life (84%), they feel connected to other people (85%), their religious faith is constantly growing deeper (89%), and they were the least likely to feel their life is getting more stressful each year (14%). The faith group most dissimilar to evangelicals was the atheists and agnostics. Those in this “non-faith” category were the segment least likely to feel very happy (57%), feel connected (57%), say their faith is growing deeper (19%), and most likely to feel their life is increasingly stressful (29%) and that life is too complex (16%). The responses of the other religious groups studied — such as non-evangelical born-again Christians, notional Christians and adults affiliated with non-Christian faith groups — fall in-between those of the evangelicals and atheists/agnostics.
( Editor's Note: According to the Barna website, “'Notional Christians' are people who describe themselves as Christians” but do not necessarily subscribe to an Evangelical Protestant definition of salvation. Surveyed Catholics likely are included in this category.)
Another way of exploring the impact of faith on such views is by gauging people’s faith activity. Those who have an “active faith” — that is, they attend church, read the Bible and pray during a typical week — were more likely than other adults, regardless of their religious beliefs, to strongly agree that they were very happy with their life (73% compared to 64% among the less active), to feel connected to other people (72% versus 63%, respectively), to claim their faith is consistently growing deeper (83% versus 38%), and were more likely to describe themselves as being in excellent physical condition (42% versus 34%).
Equally as powerful an influence as faith, however, was a person’s socioeconomic status. Upon comparing those who have completed college and have a household income of $60,000 or more — a group labeled the “upscale” — with those who did not earn a college degree and whose household earnings are less than $30,000 — labeled the “downscale” — significant differences were recorded for six of the eight measures studied.
Upscale adults were more likely to strongly agree that they are very happy with their life (by a 78% to 62% margin); to feel connected to others (78 vs. 62%); and to say they manage information and knowledge effectively (75% vs. 57%). They were less likely to strongly agree that their faith is constantly growing deeper (44% compared to 56% of the downscale adults); that life has become too complex (5% vs. 23%), or that life is becoming more stressful each year (15% vs. 36%).
Americans Seeking the Right Balance
In the ever-changing cultural context in which Americans live, one of the ongoing challenges has been to figure out the appropriate balance between faith and personal achievement. On the one hand, research confirms that education and financial affluence generally lead to a more comfortable and satisfying lifestyle. On the other hand, in a nation where more than four out of five adults claim to be Christian, the exhortation of that faith is to put God first, rather than material comfort and abundance. Most Americans continue to search for the right balance of the two competing emphases.
According to George Barna, who directed the study, even Christian churches are at odds regarding the proper mix of faith, personal effort, and lifestyle goals. “The majority of people who say they are Christian believe that hard work, competitive workplace tactics and aggressive financial strategies are fully compatible with their Christian faith. A smaller percentage of self-described Christians notes that education, financial earnings and vocational activity are best understood as tools that facilitate the expression of faith-driven rather than culturally determined values and principles. Another small but growing group of self-defined Christians contends that God’s plan is for people to claim affluence in God’s name and to expect it as a reward for their faith in Him. Americans continue to struggle with the teachings of their faith and the desire to lead a comfortable, low-stress life, and with the question of whether these ideals are mutually compatible.”
(This article reprinted with permission of Barna Research Online. Barna Research is an independent marketing research company that studies cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors in the U.S.)
