Happiness in Hard Times: Does Religion Buffer the Negative Effect of Unemployment on Happiness?

Abstract

Two well-known findings are that the religious are happier than the non-religious, and people are less happy when they lose their job. We investigate a link between these by asking whether religion buffers against the negative effect of unemployment on happiness. Although theorized or implicitly assumed in many studies, empirical demonstrations of a causal, moderating effect of religion have been infrequent and often not strong methodologically. We conduct individual-level fixed effects models to test for the buffering effect in the U.S. context using recent panel data from the 2006-2014 General Social Surveys (GSS). Religious service attendance, belief in life after death, and trying to carry one’s religious beliefs over into other dealings in life all substantially buffered the effect of unemployment on happiness. Praying daily, believing God exists, identifying as a religious person, and having a religious affiliation did not. We discuss these results in the context of prior work and existing theory. To further support a causal interpretation of these findings, we also conduct a secondary analysis showing that unemployment does not appear to increase or decrease religiousness. This paper makes an important sociological contribution to the growing field of happiness research and to our understanding of how religion matters to people during hard times.

Religion Protected Mental Health but Constrained Crisis Response During Crucial Early Days of the COVID‐19 Pandemic

“…This study complements the literature on religion and coping, and especially work highlighting religion's role in protecting mental health in the face of hardship (Bradshaw and Ellison 2010;Hastings and Roeser 2020;Stratta et al 2013). As we showed, religion proved helpful during the early days of exposure to new stressors created by the virus and the accompanying societal challenges, offering mental health protections to highly religious Americans and especially evangelicals.…”

“…Although high levels of distress among the U.S. population were noted early in the pandemic (Holingue et al 2020), research suggests that the correspondingly high levels of religiosity could prove helpful for protecting against its negative mental health consequences (e.g., Schieman, Bierman, and Ellison 2013;Schieman, Bierman, and Upenieks 2018;Schnittker 2001). Religion can operate as a source of psychological compensation in the face of challenges such as the loss of a job (e.g., Hastings and Roeser 2020), providing an important resource that people can draw upon for comfort, strength, community, and a sense of control in the face of uncertainty and hardship (Kay et al 2010;Laurin, Kay, and Moscovitch 2008;Schnabel 2021).…”

“…Besides the connection and community it provides, religion's ideological structures-such as a sense of order to the world, an all-loving and all-powerful being overseeing one's fate, rules that provide clear guidance, and the hope of a future utopia-make it a potent source of comfort, strength, and meaning during hard times. Religion can be especially helpful in hard times (Hastings and Roeser 2020), and emerging research on religion and mental health outside the United States (Counted et al 2021) and among subgroups in the United States (Pirutinsky, Cherniak, and Rosmarin 2020) suggest it may be particularly useful for coping with these unprecedented times. Yet as people draw upon religion as a resource, they further commit themselves to the ideological aspects of religion as a schema-and those ideological aspects (i.e., the content, teachings, and norms of a religion) can provide further comfort, strength, and certainty in a self-reinforcing loop.…”

Gender, Sexuality, and Religion: A Critical Integrative Review and Agenda for Future Research

“…Religion is often considered a protective factor for health, happiness, and wellbeing, both providing general positive associations on some wellbeing outcomes and buffering negative consequences of hardship (Hastings and Roeser 2020; Schieman, Bierman, and Ellison 2013; Schnabel and Schieman 2022). However, recent studies have investigated the impact of religious affiliation and religiosity on gender and sexual minorities and demonstrated some heterogeneity in these apparent benefits.…”

Does Religion Buffer Against the Detrimental Effect of Cyberbullying Victimization on Adults’ Health and Well-Being? Evidence from the 2014 Canadian General Social Survey

“…Religion has been portrayed as an effective psychosocial resource that weakens the adverse consequences of stressful events and chronic stressors (Bierman, 2006; Bierman et al, 2018; Bradshaw & Ellison, 2010; Ellison et al, 2019; Hastings & Roeser, 2020; Jung, 2014; Shah, 2019). Despite its complexity and multidimensionality, religion can be divided into two broad categories, including organizational involvement (e.g.…”