According to a new Gallup report, the first survey results of the Global Flourishing Study (GFS) show a connection between spiritual and religious beliefs and practices and human flourishing.
The first wave of data shows facets of religious observance and practice are connected to higher flourishing scores. Flourishing is “substantively larger” in association with religiosity and religious service attendance. Researchers note that the respondent’s context clarifies these findings, which include having gainful employment and “living comfortably on present income.”
The Global Flourishing Study is a data collection and research collaboration between Baylor University and Harvard University researchers, in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open Science (COS). The Global Flourishing Study, the first of its kind, is a multiyear and multicountry project.
The principal fascination of this study is human flourishing, which is viewed as “a multidimensional construct.” Comprised of a dozen questions, GFS measures six “domains of flourishing” identified as:
- happiness and life satisfaction
- physical and mental health
- meaning and purpose
- character and virtue
- close social relationships
- financial and material stability.
“The Global Flourishing study offers data to researchers interested in understanding what factors facilitate human flourishing for over 200,000 individuals. Regarding the relationship between religion and how well people’s lives are going, the inaugural wave of data will help researchers:
- isolate what aspects of religion and spirituality promote which domains of human flourishing
- establish the conditions moderating these associations across diverse societies
- examine whether childhood religious participation is associated with present flourishing.”
For the full report, click here. You can access the Global Flourishing Study here.
Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
