Why So Blue: Liberal Women are Less Happy, More Lonely. But Why?
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • last year • 46 commentsBy: Institute for Family Studies
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Highlights
- Young conservative women are three times as likely to report being very satisfied with life compared to young liberal women.
- These two factors, church and marriage, account for about half the ideological gap among young women in a multivariate analysis of life satisfaction that included controls for factors like race, education, and income.
- Liberal young women are less likely to be integrated into core American institutions—marriage and religion—that lend meaning, direction, and a sense of solidarity to women's lives.
Young liberal women are especially prone nowadays to reporting poor mental health. This was the discovery that Zach Goldberg made almost five years ago pouring over Pew data in the spring of 2020. Further research in 2022 found that depression had surged among liberal high school girls in the last decade-and-a-half, and much more so for them than other high schoolers, especially conservatives.
Is this ideological gap in the mental health of liberal and conservative women still present?
Yes, new evidence from 2024 American Family Survey indicates it is. Young liberal women are markedly less satisfied with life than their conservative peers. Specifically, we found that 37% of conservative women reported being "completely satisfied" with life, whereas only 12% of liberal women did. Young conservative women are three times as likely to report being very satisfied with life compared to young liberal women. Moreover, liberal women are two to three times more likely to report they are "not satisfied" with their lives, compared to conservative women. And consistent with previous research, the effect of ideology on young women's happiness held up to controls for age, education, race, and income.
Many of the most thoughtful interpreters—like Jonathan Haidt, Jean Twenge, and Matthew Yglesias—of this ideological divide in the emotional well-being of young women have pointed to the role that "catastrophizing" thinking has played in dragging down the spirits of liberal women. The idea is that taking an overly negative view of the world, and minimizing your own agency to navigate life, often inspired by social media, has taken a serious toll on young liberal women's emotional health. That's because, as Yglesias put it: "Mentally processing ambiguous events with a negative spin is just what depression is."
We don't doubt the power of technologically-induced negative thinking in driving down liberal young women's spirits, especially because they use social media more than their conservative female peers, as Twenge noted. But we think there is more to the story. 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.
Our thinking here is indebted to the great French sociologist, Emile Durkheim, who stressed the value of social integration into core social institutions for the emotional welfare of men and women. So, we looked at how marriage, churchgoing, and loneliness help to account for the happiness gap between liberal and conservative women.
Our results from the American Family Survey are striking. Conservative women ages 18-40 are married at rates that are 20 percentage points than liberal women in the same age group. And whereas over half of conservative women in this age group attend church weekly, only 12% of their liberal peers do. Together, these two factors account for about half the ideological gap among young women in a multivariate analysis of life satisfaction that included controls for factors like race, education, and income.
We also looked at loneliness, which unfortunately has been on the rise for Americans. But we found that liberal women ages 18 to 40 are much more likely to report frequent feelings of loneliness. Nearly one-in-three (29%) reported feeling lonely a few times a week or more. Conservative women, on the other hand, are much less likely to report feeling lonely, with just 11% feeling lonely a few times a week or more. Unsurprisingly, loneliness is correlated with life satisfaction. When we included loneliness in our life satisfaction model, it diminished the effect of marriage and church attendance. Even still, marriage was a strong predictor of life satisfaction.
When we control for education, race, age, and income, the 2024 American Family Survey data also indicate that liberal women ages 18 to 40 are over three times as likely to report frequent feelings of loneliness compared to their conservative peers. But a large part of this loneliness gap comes from different rates of marriage and church attendance, seen in the table above. Adding controls for marriage and church attendance, ideology becomes less important, with marriage being the strongest predictor of feeling less lonely.
Taken together, our analysis leads us to three conclusions.
First, the ideological divide in emotional well-being between young liberal and conservative women endures.
Second, this ideological divide does not appear to be just a consequence of negative thinking; it also seems to flow from the fact that liberal young women are less likely to be integrated into core American institutions—specifically marriage and religion—that lend meaning, direction, and a sense of solidarity to women's lives.
Third, lower levels of marriage and churchgoing among liberal women may also have a hand in their elevated reports of loneliness, which, in turn, diminishes their odds of being happy.
The bottom line, then, is 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.
Grant Bailey is a Research Associate of the Institute for Family Studies. Brad Wilcox is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Family Studies.
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Just think, they actually had to do a study to find out why a well-adjusted married woman with children was happier than an unmarried woman who had been through multiple relationships and attended a liberal arts college somewhere and talked through her nose.
What a shock /S
[i][✘]
To keep my response concise, I think one only need only look at the absolute freak out progressives had over Harrison butker speech where he said being a homemaker is as important and rewarding as any corporate position. The ideology of the left is completely at odds with the biological reality that humans are simply animals and, like all animals, have a biological compulsion to reproduce and denying it can cause unhappiness.
I wish I had put it that way
How long as Harriet Butker been a woman?
So we can put you down with the mothers are lesser women crowd
I didnt say that , why would i?
Harrison Butker is not a woman and so cant be an expert on what women want. He might be able to say what his woman wants. That is reasonable. He is a right wing catholic and that explains his views on marriage.
Because I assume you have a point. If you believe motherhood can be just as rewarding for women as a career, than you agree with him and everything else you've written is pointless. Only If you think motherhood is demeaning and unfulling would it make sense to attack Butker for saying otherwise.
I keep forgetting how segregationist progressives can be. You must tell women to shut up all the time when they dare opine about men, huh?
that shines a harsh light on the alleged celibate clergy within the catholic church ...
Happiness is.....
Putting a smile on her face
She IS smiling.
[Deleted] [✘] A ballpark figure will suffice.
I am willing to bet that there are many more happy liberal, perhaps even independents, that this "study" seems to indicate.
I decide to check out the source of the study.
Overall, we rate the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) right biased based on story selection that favors conservative causes and Mixed for factual reporting based on the endorsement of poor science.
These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes.
Institute for Family Studies – Bias and Credibility - Media Bias/Fact Check
Imagine my surprise
Pew research came up with the same result. Do you trust them?
Thanks for the tip (a more in-depth survey for sure)
I looked at the PEW survey and the point you make with your article political partisanship as a correlation to happiness is only one of many factors they explored.
The most interesting points for me from the PEW survey are (these are obviously without context)
Republicans tend to have more money than Democrats, and — as we’ve already discovered — people who have more money tend to be happier.
It turns out that there is no significant happiness gap between dog owners and cat owners.
And the key and most important takeaway from the survey is about Unhappiness rather Happiness
So much for happiness. What about the other side of the coin? Which Americans are “not too happy”? Well, as one would expect, the unhappy campers are for the most part the demographic mirror image of the happy campers. But there are a few wrinkles.
The first has to do with race . As already noted, whites and Hispanics are about equally likely to say they are very happy, and both groups are happier than blacks. But looking only at unhappiness, the relationship between the three groups changes: many fewer whites (12%) than blacks or Hispanics (each 23%) say they are not too happy.
On the health front, while there’s a strong association between feeling healthy and happy, there’s an even stronger association between feeling unhealthy and unhappy . Fully 55% of people who say their health is poor also report that they are “not too happy.” No other characteristic measured in this report comes close to rivaling poor health as a predictor of unhappiness.
The unhappiness data also highlight the plight of another demographic group — single parents with minor age children . More than a quarter of them (27%) report being not too happy – by far the largest percentage for any marital or parenting sub-group in the survey.
Are We Happy Yet? | Pew Research Center
I found the PEW a survey a more comprehensive look at Happiness and Unhappiness because of a broader perspective of comparison.
I guess that is why I am an Independent - because there are things going on in the country that I am happy about and things that I am unhappy about - just like other things in life the old saying is something like
" You take the good, Y ou take the bad, You take them both and there you have the facts of life
That is the real moral of this story (I loved that show)
You can claim to be an independent. That is really left to the observer to determine.
More importantly, this independent doesn't care (nor is his vote affected by) what ultra-right or ultra-left "observers" think they determine.
‘Republicans tend to have more money than Democrats, and — as we’ve already discovered — people who have more money tend to be happier.’
Why do you think this is. Better life choices? Taking something other than a liberal arts degree? Maybe spending time in the military and learning to self respect and respect those around you, no matter the ideology?
That's wonderful. Maybe you can tell us what makes media bias/fact check the arbiter of what is biased and what isn't?
Perhaps it takes an independent (as in centrist) to recognize another, while those who are politically biased one way or the other see others through biased eyes. Do you deny that I am not limited to my preferences by political bias, and that I have indicated choices that agree with or disagree with both sides of the aisle?
Fair point
If the bias fits, wear it I guess.
I gave you the link to the poll I looked and extracted data from the poll in your article.
I am furthering the point that all kinds of things affected the degree of happiness one feels.
If that trips your trigger - just relax it is poll and a person can make the info in a poll mean whatever they want it to, right?
Yes, I agree with that Buzz. We have disagreed on certain issues and agreed on others.
I get concerned when I hear people who want to start censoring people or publications. It is fairly easy to dissect hoaxes and propaganda. That is my only point.
That isn't even a cute response.
You refused to answer my question. I'll leave it at that.
As the polling organzations go, IMO most are politically biased one way or another to a differing degree, and it is SO easy to rig a poll - the choice of people polled, the questions asked, etc. I do think PEW is relatively reliable. As for MBFC, from years of checking in with them, I think they, as well as Snopes, might be slightly biased, but a lot less than other such organizations.
For starters, they are not the source of the study. They are simply reporting on it.
Thanks for the feedback
It seems that the PEW survey (see ink above) provided a broader look at the issue than simply being Conservative or Liberal
The article says that it was
Yes, new evidence from 2024 American Family Survey indicates it is. Young liberal women are markedly less satisfied with life than their conservative peers .
Right. The American Family Survey is not a product of Institute for Family Studies (IFS)
Sean
Relax - I thanked you and was agreeing with you.
Nothing wrong with advocating for marriage and families. Its a good thing actually. The problem comes in when you say if you dont do "this" you will be unhappy.
And that is what we see so much of from the right.
How would you like it if I said "if you are white and you dont give up your racist ways you will be despised by decent people for the rest of your life" ?
You'd probably say "thats none of your business".
My primary care doctor is a woman and I'm glad for it.
Women have every bit as much right to do what they want to with their lives as men do. Deal with it.
Get your own fricking pipe and slippers and cook your own dinner. Or order out.
How many times does the unmasked antifa rioter with the spaghetti arms reveal the face of a female twisted in anger? The question remains: why?
Dont know what you're talking about , thank god.
It wouldn't be the first time.
Who says otherwise? Get that strawman.
If liberal women are unhappy and suffer disproportionately from mental health issues , don't you think the humane thing to do is wonder why rather than lash out against strawman?
LOL. The humane thing to do is stop promoting this shit.
Sweep it under the rug, huh? Keep pretending everything is fine rather than address it?
sounds like the trumpster mantra ...
The problem comes in when you say if you dont do "this" you will be unhappy.
Excellent point
The following remarks are my opinions, based on a lifetime of observations...,and are not sweeping generalizations
Liberals as a group seem prone to suffer from pessimistic and negative thinking. They tend to "awful-ize" everything, the predominant moods seem to be hopelessness, unhappiness, and anger.
Years ago Norman Vincent Peale wrote a book called "The Power Of Positive Thinking" and I have found it to be true in my personal life. Abraham Lincoln reportedly said "most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." Years of wrong thinking and negative brainwashing can be very hard to turn around, and sadly, most people who afflicted with this condition don't recognize it and deny it.
I think the progressives who aren't close minded and actually engage with the issue have an interesting take. Modern progressivism is premised on hopelessness. That everyone is "systematically oppressed" and such. They teach people to focus on "microaggressions" and spend their lives obsessing about even minor trauma as something that can't be overcome. As the excerpt says:
Maybe young liberal women are looking at the pool of availible liberal young men and realize they are shit out of luck as far as ever getting married.
Lately it appears liberal men think that the perfect woman comes with a penis just like them, that’s why they spend so much time defending them against actual women.
I think you might be on to something .
But I am going to get away from the liberal / conservative aspect of the discussion. I have been back in the "dating pool" since i was 50 and some of the things i have seen have been self limiting on the dating scene from my observation. after listening to women .
one thing i have noticed that has become painfully true is the 80/20 rule I have watched play out , that is 80% of available women are all going after 20% of available men based on criteria they themselves set.
We have all seen the joke cartoons and memes , mentioning 6 ft tall , 6 pack abs , 6 figure income , NO baby mamas , and some other things i wont mention .
I also wont mention some of the advice i have seen on social message boards about dating sites. I saw some relationship advice yesterday , that after i read it , my only thought was , this person that posted it ,was looking to share misery and increase their pool, and that following the advice given , was how women become spinster old cat ladies .
I guess my point is , if one is going to limit the size of the pool they are fishing in , and an 80% majority is fishing that same pool, using the same bait chances are very good one will come away empty handed and unhappy .
just my opinion and take .
I am reminded of a joke told to me by a Hasidic rabbi in whose Temple I 'worked' as a Shabbat Goy (my 2 years before the ark so to speak):
Why do Jewish men divorce their wives?
Because they can afford to.
Liberal women are depressed because there are not enough libersal men into go around. Liberal.many liberal.men are bgay and want to be with other liberal men other liberal men are either are ornin the process of becoming liberal women.