College Students & Christianity

Many of us “older wiser” folk fear the younger generation (i.e., Millennials, Generation Y, Gen Next, I Gen, Gen Z) are leaving Christianity and do not realize its values. Such data have come from a number of respected survey sources. Teleios recently examined the question of Christianity on college campus, including more detail regarding the perceived value of Christianity in daily life.

Teleios Research – The Bible as a source of advice

Teleios 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 in contributing to wellbeing, and how they would respond to this advice (1).

• Results – This survey showed that college students believe maintenance of good health, close relations with friends, family and God, and 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 1 and 2 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 most commonly 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 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 (see Table 3).

• Analysis – What motivated their responses? There are several potential 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 so recognized the importance of such advice apart from any cultural influence.
  • Some students 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 (2-4). The results of our survey, however, are positive in that it appears the great majority of students limited their dependence on these activities to increase their wellbeing.

• Summary – 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.

Teleios Research – Christianity and wellbeing

Teleios randomly surveyed 227 students at the University of Georgia in Athens to gain a greater understanding of the influence of religious beliefs on the general wellbeing of university attendees by evaluating a general group of students at a large public university in the southeastern United States (5).

• Results – All the university students in general reported high levels of wellbeing with no difference between the most common religious belief systems. Evangelical Christians showed several characteristics that might promote wellbeing in that they perceived themselves: more spiritual, accepted by God, and at peace than adherents to other belief systems (see Table 4). Evangelicals bore more guilt than those of other belief systems, although it appeared mild in extent.

However, on further analysis to identify groups with better wellbeing, we found students who identified as both evangelical Christian, and ‘saved by grace’ (n=61) showed greater wellbeing than other groups combined (P= 0.015). In addition, the evangelical/saved by grace group demonstrated similar guilt ratings as other participants combined (P=0.01).

Further, when we added adherence to the analysis, described as attending a religious group at least once a week, praying at least every day and teaching about their faith at least several times a month, we found that among this small group (n=23) there were no students with indifferent or poor wellbeing ratings and their wellbeing levels were better (P=0.015), with similar levels of guilt (P=0.11), than the other groups combined.

• Analysis – Why would this group demonstrate especially good wellbeing and similar guilt to other participants? We speculate that the adherence to the Christian lifestyle might have produced benefits associated with wellbeing as described in earlier literature (6-8). Further, the term ‘saved by grace’ may indicate an acceptance by God through faith alone without works which might enhance wellbeing through the confidence of acceptance by an eternal being.

However, being saved by grace showed no difference between evangelical and social Christians in wellbeing or other wellbeing related parameters. It did show, as might be expected, that evangelical Christians adhered more to their religion through prayer and religious group attendance, but these activities did not appear to enhance wellbeing in this group.

• Summary – This study showed that students at a southeastern public university generally have high levels of wellbeing across all religious belief systems common in the United States. Evangelical Christians showed higher levels of spirituality, acceptance by God and purpose, but also greater levels of guilt. However, evangelicals who also identified as ‘saved by grace’ showed greater wellbeing and similar guilt ratings than other groups combined.

Teleios Research – Wellbeing and Christianity

Teleios also evaluated the influence of religious beliefs on general wellbeing in university students by conducting a survey at a large, southeastern public university including: evangelicals, social Christians, Roman Catholics, religious non-Christians and atheist/agnostics (9).

• Results – Similar to our previous survey at this same university all groups in this survey reported generally good wellbeing. In this survey the evangelical groups had the highest ratings for wellbeing and purpose (P=0.004 and 0.0001, see Table 5).

Fortunately, among all groups, only a low minority of respondents were dependent upon drugs/alcohol, social media or sexual activity for good wellbeing. Interestingly, evangelicals who indicated they did not have good well-being (13%) were more likely to depend on sexual relations or drugs/alcohol (54%) as a means for attaining good wellbeing than evangelicals reporting good wellbeing (17%). The atheists/agnostics group depended upon similar methods for wellbeing as evangelicals, apart from the spiritual aspects, and a greater reliance on sexual relations.

Evangelicals who were more adherent to their faith (e.g., religious activity, Bible study, prayer, praise, and teaching) showed better wellbeing scores than non-adherent evangelicals as well as compared to all other religions (P<0.0001).

Surprisingly 40% of the atheists/agnostics group indicated they had strong feelings of guilt not seen in our last survey. Perhaps this group was under conviction of the Holy Spirit to come to salvation (John 16:7-11). Unlike evangelicals, we could not identify a subset of habits that predicted good or bad wellbeing in the atheists/agnostics group.

Atheists/agnostics were less likely to demonstrate their beliefs through discussions, action or monetary giving. They more often expressed a desire for social activism and a one world government as a source of hope.

Student beliefs regarding requirements to enter heaven varied markedly between religious groups with 80% of evangelicals and 60% of Catholics believing they would be admitted to heaven by faith alone in Jesus Christ. In contrast, half of the atheists/agnostics group indicated there was no heaven, but the rest were unsure or thought they would be admitted through works or grace.

Roman Catholics and social Christians generally mirrored the answers of evangelicals but noted worse wellbeing and were less likely to believe in grace alone and substituted good works as a means for obtaining God’s acceptance into heaven. They also generally were less adherent to practicing their faith. The ‘other’ religion group tended to reflect most closely the atheists/agnostics group except they were more likely to indicate they would achieve entry into heaven through good works.

In summary, our studies in college students showed that these students mostly demonstrate good wellbeing, with evangelicals reporting the highest levels. Overall, wellbeing and hope generally can result from maintaining good health, relationships with family and friends as well as career pursuits. However, evangelicals had the highest ratings for wellbeing in one study and especially those who also noted they were saved by grace and adhered to their Christian walk.

1. https://teleiosresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Wellbeing-in-college-students-data.pdf
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.
3. 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 well-being. Drug Alcohol Depend, 128, 111-115.
4. 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.
5. https://teleiosresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Religion-and-wellbeing-among-College-Students-data.pdf
6. MacIlvaine WR, Nelson LA, Stewart JA, Stewart, WC. Association of strength of community service to personal well-being. Community Ment Health J 2014;50:577-582. doi.org/10.1007/s10597-013-9660-0
7. MacIlvaine WR, Nelson LA, Stewart JA, Stewart WC. Association of strength of religious adherence to quality of life measures. Complement Ther Clin Pract 2013;19:251-255. doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2013.05.001
8. Stewart WC, Adams MP, Stewart JA, Nelson LA. Review of clinical medicine and religious practice. J Relig Health 2013;52:91-106. doi: 10.1007/s10943-012-9578-9
9. https://teleiosresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Religious-and-social-influences-on-wellbeing-in-college-students-data.pdf