It is fairly well-documented in the academic literature that women suffer poorer mental health compared to men and this is generally true cross-culturally. It is also well documented that conservatives tend to have greater mental health and happiness compared to liberals. This gap has been demonstrated since the 1970s.
Additional research shows that girls who lean more left politically are experiencing plummeting levels of mental health. A new report, highlighted by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), indicates this trend is not diminishing, but growing more stark.
It is tragic.
IFS explains “Young liberal women are markedly less satisfied with life than their conservative peers.”
37% of conservative women report being “completely satisfied” with life.
28% of moderates indicated this.
Only 12% of liberal women reported being completely satisfied.
This means young conservative women are just over three times more likely to feel very happy in their lives than their liberal peers. IFS adds, “Moreover, liberal women are two to three times more likely to report they are ‘not satisfied’ with their lives, compared to conservative women.”
Journalist Matthew Yglesias has an idea for what causes this disparity, saying, “One possible culprit for this widespread sadness is that social media apps are especially damaging to girls’ psychological health, a thesis long championed by Jonathan Haidt.”
But this does not fully explain the stark conservative/liberal divide. IFS thinks there is more to the story, explaining:
Given that we’re “social animals,” as Aristotle noted, we think different levels of “social integration” between liberal and conservative young women also may have a hand in the happiness divide between the two groups.
They explain how young conservative women are far more likely to be married and much less likely to be cohabiting. They are also far more likely, by almost five times, to be attending weekly church services.
Add to this, liberal women ages 18 to 40 are much more likely to report frequent feelings of loneliness and 29% report feeling this way many times a week. Only 11% of conservative women report this. Marriage and church boost social integration, which is an important mental and physical health factor.
The take-away here is that ideas have big consequences, as Richard Weaver famously put it. What we believe and what we practice in our lives matters for good and bad. All ideas are not created equal. Some led to better heath and contentment. Some create less happiness and feelings of loneliness.
IFS concludes “that any efforts to bridge this ideological gap in young women’s emotional well-being will seemingly require not only a change in thinking but also a renewal of young liberal women’s connection to America’s core institutions—family and faith.”
Related articles and resources:
Four Things to Enhance Marital Happiness Among Wives
Research Finds Republican Husbands More Faithful; Religious Even More
New Research: Marriage Still Provides Major Happiness Premium
Marriage and Family Improves Happiness Far More Than a Pay Raise
Married Mothers and Fathers Are Happiest According to Gold-Standard General Social Survey
Important New Book Explains Why Marriage Still Matters
Why You Should Care About the Growing Positive Power of Marriage
Why Soulmate Marriage is Less Healthy Than Family-Centric Unions
MythBuster: No, the Divorce Rate is Not as High in the Church as the World
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