The Impact of Religious Self-Identification on Happiness and Well-Being: A Case Study of Kazakhstan

Abstract

Faith helps religious people persevere, hold back, refrain from fighting as much as possible, bear through life tribulations, and keep their loved ones in good spirits. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that people who identify as believers are happier than those who do not. The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of religiosity on self-assessed well-being and satisfaction with various material and immaterial aspects of life from the perspective of religious and nonreligious people and to determine the strength of the effect of religion on subjective well-being in contrast to other socioeconomic factors. In the present study, 1,500 respondents from Kazakhstan took a survey that touched upon their perceptions of social well-being and self-assessed religious status. The survey results were subjected to quantitative analysis via descriptive statistics and correlation analysis via Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and the Mann–Whitney U test. The results indicate that people in Kazakhstan demonstrate a fairly high level of self-assessed happiness. There is a statistically significant, albeit weak, correlation between self-assessed happiness and being religious. Research shows that regardless of religiosity, happiness is likely to be experienced by people if they are healthy.