Did Religious Well-Being Benefits Converge or Diverge During the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany?

Jan-Philip Steinmann (), Hannes Kröger (), Jörg Hartmann () and Theresa M. Entringer ()
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Jan-Philip Steinmann: Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN)
Hannes Kröger: Zalando
Jörg Hartmann: Leipzig University and Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC)
Theresa M. Entringer: German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin)

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2024, vol. 25, issue 7, No 20, 35 pages

Abstract: Abstract A large body of literature highlights the benefits of being religious in terms of subjective well-being. We examine changes to these so-called religious well-being benefits during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany and address the role of (formal and informal) social integration when explaining these changes. We empirically test two contrasting scenarios: The first scenario predicts a decrease in religious well-being benefits (convergence hypothesis), while the second scenario predicts an increase in religious well-being benefits (divergence hypothesis). We adopt a potential outcomes framework and apply marginal structural models and inverse probability of treatment weighting to nationally representative, longitudinal data including both pre- and during-pandemic periods. Thereby, we show that initial religious well-being benefits declined during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. This decline was partly due to religious individuals’ perception of decreasing social integration. Our results challenge the widespread idea that religious individuals are better protected against crises.

Keywords: Religion; Subjective well-being; Life satisfaction; Affective well-being; Social integration; COVID-19; Pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10902-024-00818-8

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