Religion, Time Use, and Affective Well-Being

Chaeyoon Lim

doi:10.15195/v3.a29

Abstract

This study examines whether religious people experience more positive affect and less negative affect in everyday life and, if they do, whether it is because of the differences in how they allocate time to different activities or because they feel differently during similar activities. Using the well-being module from the 2010–13 American Time Use Survey (ATUS), I show that churchgoers enjoy a significantly higher level of affective well-being on Sunday than non-churchgoers do. The supplementary analysis of the Gallup Daily Poll data suggests that this higher level of affective well-being among churchgoers is found throughout the rest of the week as well. Further analyses of the ATUS demonstrate that about 40 percent of the affective well-being gap between churchgoers and non-churchgoers on Sunday can be explained by how they spend their time differently. Churchgoers spend more time on Sunday participating in pleasant activities shared with family members and friends than non-churchgoers do. More than half of the gap, however, remains unexplained, implying that it has to do with how they feel during similar activities rather than the activities in which they participate. I discuss the implications of these findings on the mechanisms underlying the link between religion and subjective well-being.

Highlights

This study examines whether religious people experience more positive affect and less negative affect in everyday life and, if they do, whether it is because of the differences in how they allocate time to different activities or because they feel differently during similar activities
This study aims to extend this literature on religion and subjective well-being by analyzing the American Time Use Survey data (ATUS) to explore the link between religious service attendance and affective well-being as experienced in daily life
By using the data collected with the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), which measures positive and negative affective experiences associated with specific activities, this study offers a cleaner test of the connection between religious participation and the affective domain of subjective well-being compared to previous studies

Summary

Introduction

This study examines whether religious people experience more positive affect and less negative affect in everyday life and, if they do, whether it is because of the differences in how they allocate time to different activities or because they feel differently during similar activities. This study aims to extend this literature on religion and subjective well-being by analyzing the American Time Use Survey data (ATUS) to explore the link between religious service attendance and affective well-being as experienced in daily life. Using this dataset, this study advances our understanding of the connection between religion and subjective well-being in several ways. By probing how the differences in time use are related to the variation in affective well-being, this study throws light on one of the long-standing questions in the literature; that is, which aspects of religion are critical in the link between religious involvement and subjective well-being, and how? Do churchgoers and non-churchgoers differ in their affective well-being because of what they do in everyday life or because of how they feel while participating in the same activities? By probing how the differences in time use are related to the variation in affective well-being, this study throws light on one of the long-standing questions in the literature; that is, which aspects of religion are critical in the link between religious involvement and subjective well-being, and how?

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Conclusion