Religion and positive well-being among Israeli and diaspora Jews: Findings from the World Values Survey

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of selected religious indicators on two measures of positive well-being among Jews. Using data from subsamples of Jewish respondents from Israel (N = 1,023) and the diaspora (N = 859) taken from the World Values Survey, single-item measures of happiness and life satisfaction were regressed onto six measures of religiousness in the diaspora sample and onto the one religious measure available in the Israeli sample, adjusting for effects of age, gender, marital status, education, employment, and social class. Among Israeli Jews, affirming the importance of God in one's life is modestly associated with greater life satisfaction (β = 0.07, p < 0.05), but not with happiness. In the diaspora, the same measure is associated with greater happiness (β = 0.13, p < 0.01), as is more frequent attendance at synagogue services (β = 0.14, p < 0.01), but neither is associated with life satisfaction.

Keywords:

• religion
• happiness
• life satisfaction
• well-being
• Jewish
• Israel