When Americans make New Year\u2019s resolutions, a better relationship with God ranks almost as high as better health, according to a study by LifeWay Research.<\/p>\n
And for many groups, faith actually outranks health. Older Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and Christians are all more likely to say they\u2019ve made resolutions about God than about health.<\/p>\n
Overall, 57 percent of Americans report making health-related New Year\u2019s resolutions in the past while 52 percent say they\u2019ve addressed their relationships with God. Those were the top two responses in a LifeWay Research survey of 1,000 Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t hear a lot of talk about it, but a relationship with God is still something people want,\u201d said Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research. \u201cThey have time at the holidays to think, and they realize what they didn\u2019t do last year — things they value but are not living out. So they start the year with an aspiration to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Topics of resolve<\/p>\n
While health and faith are the leading topics for New Year\u2019s resolutions, Americans also report addressing their use of time (43 percent), relationships with family members (42 percent), finances (37 percent), work (33 percent) and relationships with friends (31 percent).<\/p>\n
Many of the issues overlap as people aspire to improve themselves, McConnell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUse of time is probably the best measure of priorities,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd investing in a relationship with God may encourage people to address other priorities as well, such as spending time with family or fixing their finances.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than one in five Americans (21 percent) say they haven\u2019t made New Year\u2019s resolutions on any topic mentioned in the survey.<\/p>\n
Men appear less resolution-minded than women, according to the survey. A quarter of men report no resolutions, compared to 17 percent of women. Meanwhile, women are more likely than men to say they\u2019ve made resolutions about their health (62 percent vs. 52 percent), relationship with God (58 percent vs. 47 percent) and use of time (47 percent vs. 39 percent).<\/p>\n
Resolutions of faith<\/p>\n
Americans with evangelical beliefs are among the most likely to make New Year\u2019s resolutions about their relationships with God. Faith trumps health by a wide margin for them: 72 percent say they have made resolutions regarding God while 56 percent have addressed their health.<\/p>\n
Most evangelical believers (51 percent) also report having made New Year\u2019s resolutions about their use of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor an evangelical, faith should be integrated into every area of life,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cNot every resolution will be about having a relationship with God, but their relationship with God should be affecting what they do in other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
In contrast, only 43 percent of those who do not hold evangelical beliefs have made New Year\u2019s resolutions about their relationships with God, and 39 percent have addressed their use of time.<\/p>\n
Resolutions about a relationship with God are widespread among African Americans (73 percent) and Hispanics (63 percent). In addition, 61 percent of Christians, 59 percent of Southerners and 56 percent of Americans 55 and older say they have made resolutions regarding God.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn January we always hear about health-related resolutions. We don\u2019t hear as much about people\u2019s concern for their relationship with God,\u201d McConnell said. \u201cBut this research shows faith has a prominent place in New Year\u2019s resolutions. Many people want to take steps to make God a greater part of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Methodology: The phone survey of Americans was conducted Sept. 14-28, 2015. The calling utilized random digit dialing. Fifty percent of completes were among landlines and 50 percent among cell phones. Maximum quotas and slight weights were used for gender, region, age, ethnicity and education to more accurately reflect the population. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.6 percent. Margins of error are higher in subgroups. Evangelical beliefs are defined using the NAE LifeWay Research Evangelical Beliefs Research Definition based on respondent beliefs.<\/p>\n
______<\/p>\n
Lisa Cannon Green is senior writer for Facts & Trends magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Americans make New Year\u2019s resolutions, a better relationship with God ranks almost as high as better health, according to a study by LifeWay Research. And for many groups, faith actually outranks health. Older Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and Christians are all more likely to say they\u2019ve made resolutions about God than about health. Overall, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[991,2525,2526,126,358],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}