Many
of us “older wiser” folk J
fear the younger generation, the Millennials, are leaving Christianity and do
not realize its values. Such data have come from a number of respected survey
houses. I thought Teleios should examine the question as well, but in more
detail regarding the perceived value of Christianity in daily life.
We randomly surveyed 105 students at the University
of Georgia in Athens for influences on their wellbeing, their ability to
recognize advice from an individual source, its perceived benefit as contributing
to wellbeing, and how they would respond to this advice.
This survey showed) that college students believe
that maintenance of good health and close relations with friends, family and
God, as well as satisfaction with career goals, are important to wellbeing!
Detractions from wellbeing were noted most often as poor health, bad self-image
and stress/fatigue from course work. Please see tables below.
When students were provided a list of advice statements from an
undisclosed source, in the majority of cases students agreed the provided
statements were wise. They mostly common
identified: be grateful, be slow to speak and quick to listen, and work hard to
provide for yourself and others, to be sage advice. Most students correctly
identified the advice statements as coming from the Bible. When the students
were told on the survey the advice statements were indeed paraphrased from the
Bible, and were asked how they would change their relationship to the source of
the guidance, 57% indicated they would seek further advice from the Bible and most
of the remaining group said they would at least maintain their current
knowledge base.
What motivated their responses? I can think of several choices:
·
There is a predominant Christian culture in the
Southeastern United States that may have eased acceptance of the maxims coming
from this religion.
·
Many students may have possessed already a
Christian commitment and recognized the importance of such advice in their
lives apart from any cultural influence.
·
Some student may have suffered enough emotional
trials in their life to attract them to the wisdom and its source.
Of interest was the low number of respondents who indicated sexual
relations, drugs/alcohol or social media were a source of positive wellbeing.
These factors have been studied in the last generation and have been shown
potentially to reduce wellbeing when used in excess.1-3 The results
of our survey, however, are positive in that it appears the great majority of
students limited their dependence on these activities increasing their
wellbeing.
So good news! College students most commonly identify health, close
relationships with family, friends, and God, as well as satisfaction with
career goals, as positive sources of wellbeing. Further, about half are willing
to pursue Biblical knowledge to change their lives and most of the rest
recognize the wisdom of Biblical advice.
To ponder, do you think differences existed in
wellbeing between students depending on their desire to pursue Biblical wisdom,
and why?
Table
1: What most commonly improves wellbeing?
(more
than one choice possible)
(N
= 105)
|
Responses
|
N
|
Percentage
|
|
Maintenance of good health
and/or sporting activities
|
76
|
72%
|
|
A close relationship with
family
|
76
|
72%
|
|
A close relationship with
friends
|
76
|
72%
|
|
A close relationship with God
|
60
|
57%
|
|
Satisfaction with my
professional career goals
|
56
|
53%
|
Table 2: What most
commonly detracts from general wellbeing?
(more
than one choice possible)
(N
= 105)
|
Responses
|
N
|
Percentage
|
|
Lack
of vigor, energy, optimal health
|
67
|
64%
|
|
Poor
self-image
|
67
|
64%
|
|
Stress/fatigue
from university course work
|
67
|
64%
|
|
Lack
of sense of purpose with my studies/career goals
|
52
|
50%
|
Thanks for visiting. I look forward to your
comments and questions.
WC Stewart
1. Dietze, P., Jenkinson, R., Aitken, C., Stoové, M., Jolley,
D., Hickman, M., & Kerr, T. (2013). The relationship between alcohol use
and injecting drug use: impacts on health, crime and wellbeing. Drug Alcohol
Depend, 128, 111-115. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.08.013
2. Becker, M.W., Alzahabi, R., & Hopwood, C.J. (2013).
Media multitasking is associated with symptoms of depression and social anxiety.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw, 16, 132-135. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0291
3. Fielder, R.L., Walsh, J.L., Carey, K.B., & Carey, M.P.
(2014). Sexual hookups and adverse health outcomes: a longitudinal study of
first-year college women. J Sex Res, 51, 131-144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2013.848255
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