How Religion And Friendship Affect Happiness: A Research Study

MG4002 Data Analytics

MG4002 Data Analytics

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Problem statement 

There are different dimensions of happiness derived from different sources. Friendships are considered as one important source of bringing happiness. Despite the fact that most variation in happiness has been sourced from genetic factor, recent studies find that close relationship brings happiness beyond the contribution of individual’s personality. Finding of these studies encourage further research to find out the connectedness between happiness and friendship. Empirical investigation has been made to evaluate the role of friendship in happiness. In literatures, there are different definition of friendship (Demir, Tyra and Özen-Ç?plak 2018). Friendship refers to the voluntary interdependence that developed overtime between the two persons. Followed by its name, friendship defines to a qualitative relationship. Scholars also argued that friend is actually a mixed blessing involving various degree of conflict. The two main dimension of friendship thus are conflict and quality. Most researchers support the claim that friendship is one vital source of happiness (Holder and Coleman 2015). The conflict dimension of friendship however suggests a negative association between friendship and happiness. Further study thus needed to explore any proposed relation between the two friendship and happiness.

Another aspect that is often considered to be one factor contributing to happiness is religion. Religion has been found to be one factor that enhances happiness. Many researches concludes a positive association between happiness and religiosity.  Some studies also found happiness to be independent of religiosity (Aghababaei and B?achnio 2014). The measurement of happiness is responsible for producing inconsistent results among studies. Researches claim that 40 percent variation in happiness has been explained by the intentional activities. In order to find out factors explaining rest of the variation in happiness several factors have been taken into consideration. Researches have confirmed that there is a satisfactory interlinkage between happiness and satisfactory social relation (Mandeville 2017). Evidences also support that the relationship between religiosity and material well-being. This leads to a research area for scrutinizing the relationship between religion and happiness.

1.2 Research aim 

Aims of this research study is to find out how religion and friendship affect happiness of an individual living in particular society.

The paper is arranged into the following subsections. The second section discusses conceptual framework of the research consistent with past literatures and research aims. The subsequent sections are research methodology, statistical analysis of the data and discussion and conclusion.

2.0 Conceptual framework

Friendship is regarded one source of enhancing happiness. Past literatures support this claim in three ways. These are focus on overall quality of friendship, particular features of friendship and number of friends. One study found that best friendship quality and associated conflict are related with happiness especially for young and late adolescent. This study showed that the most important features of friendship are self-validation and companionship. The support received friendship or companionship is an important attribute of happiness. The closeness and satisfaction received from friendship are associated with happiness (Demir et al. 2018). These studies are based on the either best friendship or general friendship. Some study found a negative association between happiness and conflicts resulted from friendship especially among late adolescent. Researches based on conflict and other indices of adjustment also assert a negative relation between friendship and happiness. There have been considerable number of researches establishing the relationship between quality and conflict with happiness. Studies based on quality of friendship confirms a positive connection between happiness and quality of friendship. These studies conclude two things. Firstly, more the number of friends happier a person is. Secondly, individual benefit from all friends they have. This however is not true always. All the friendly do not always equally benefit an individual (Lynch 2015). Most study confirm the first is more likely to happen that is more friends means more happiness contributing to economic well-being. People often distinguishes among friends depending on degree of happiness. In relation to already existing literatures, the present study attempts to find how friendship is actually associated with happiness.

2.0 Conceptual Framework

One aspect contributing to happiness is the religiosity. Several researches conclude that religiosity has a positive influence on happiness. There are also some studies finding no association between religion and happiness. Measuring happiness is considered as an important factor in finding out how religiosity influence happiness (Sander 2017). The two widely used index Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and Depression Happiness scale produced inconsistent result among several studies. Recently, researchers have been found it import to assess the state of health and wellbeing of atheists in relation to their emergence as an important socio cultural group. One study found an appealing case where non-religious are found to have a lower scale of happiness when directly compared with the religious are. Most studies however are limited in its scope in making a comparative assessment between religious and non-religious group making it difficult to draw conclusion. International comparisons reveal a contradictory finding. These studies find that higher level of happiness are recorded by higher levels of non-religious (Edling, Rydgren and Bohma 2014). This is in direct contraction with the claim that religious people document a higher degree of well-being. One study conducted on satisfaction, one measure of happiness and religious, atheists and agonistic found no significant relation between happiness and religion.

2.1 Hypotheses

The following two hypotheses are developed to address the research questions

Hypothesis 1

Null hypothesis:  There is no statistically significant association between happiness and friendship.

Alternative hypothesis: Friendship has a statistically significant relation with happiness

Hypothesis 2

Null hypothesis:  There is no statistically significant association between happiness and religion

Alternative hypothesis: Religion has a statistically significant relation with happiness

This section discusses the research methods that have been employed in this paper to reach to the final conclusion. Research design is an important part of research study. The research methodology comprises of data collection or gathering data, relevant information and analyzes those data and information to achieve the research aim. Exploratory research is conducted in areas lacking clear research and sufficient description (DeWitt 2017). The first important part of research methodology is data collection.  Data are collected from either primary or secondary sources The primary data are collected through design of questionnaire and gathering response from a selected population. The reliable source for secondary data are authorized websites, peer reviewed journal, research article and periodicals. The method of random sampling is an appropriate method of selecting sample from the entire population. The collection of data has succeeded by analysis of the data. The basic statistical assumptions are examined through the test of normality, linearity, multicollinearity and homoscedasticity. The descriptive statistics have been computed to understand nature of the distribution (Creswell and Creswell 2017). The correlation and regression analysis are finally used to evaluate and establish relationship between happiness, friendship and religion.

4.1 Statistical assumption 

The basic statistical assumptions of a distribution include assumption of normality, linearity, multicollinearity and homoscedasticity. To test the normality histograms of each of the variables constructed. The multicollinearityamong the variables are examined through computed of VIF and tolerance. Finally, the assumption of linearity and homoscedasticity have been examined through Q-Q plots of normality for the variables.

3.0 Research Methodology

Table 1: Test for collinearity

Coefficientsa
Model	Unstandardized Coefficients	Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.	Collinearity Statistics
B	Std. Error	Beta	Tolerance	VIF
1	(Constant)	6.476	.139		46.495	.000
How often socially meet with friends, relatives or colleagues	.222	.026	.189	8.493	.000	.997	1.003
How religious are you	.023	.013	.039	1.764	.078	.997	1.003
a. Dependent Variable: How happy are you

From the above table, it has been observed that that the value of VIF is less than 5 implying multicollinearity is not a problem for either of the variable.

From the above three figures it has been observed that the residuals are constituting almost a linear trend. This therefore satisfies the assumption of heteroscedasticity.

4.2 Descriptive statistics 

Table 2: Descriptive statistics for happiness, religion and friendship

Statistics
	How happy are you	How often socially meet with friends, relatives or colleagues	How religious are you
N	Valid	1958	1958	1950
Missing	1	1	9
Mean	7.64	4.85	3.76
Median	8.00	5.00	4.00
Mode	8	6	0
Std. Deviation	1.813	1.544	3.127

The mean, median and mode of happiness are 7, 8 and 8 respectively. This implies most of the respondent response in favor of extreme happiness. The mean, median and mode for friendship are 4, 5 and 6 respectively indicating friendship to be an important factor. For religion also mean and median are close to 4 implying religion is as important as friendship is.

4.3 Correlation 

Table 3:  Correlation matrix of happiness, religion and friendship

Correlations
	How happy are you	How often socially meet with friends, relatives or colleagues	How religious are you
How happy are you	Pearson Correlation	1	.193**	.049*
Sig. (2-tailed)		.000	.029
Sum of Squares and Cross-products	6431.091	1054.636	546.160
Covariance	3.286	.539	.280
N	1958	1958	1949
How often socially meet with friends, relatives or colleagues	Pearson Correlation	.193**	1	.054*
Sig. (2-tailed)	.000		.018
Sum of Squares and Cross-products	1054.636	4664.932	506.198
Covariance	.539	2.384	.260
N	1958	1958	1949
How religious are you	Pearson Correlation	.049*	.054*	1
Sig. (2-tailed)	.029	.018
Sum of Squares and Cross-products	546.160	506.198	19055.592
Covariance	.280	.260	9.777
N	1949	1949	1950
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

The correlation coefficient between happiness and friendship is 0.193. The positive correlation coefficient implies that there is a positive association between happiness and friendship. The correlation is statistically valid at 1% level of significance. For religion, the correlation coefficient with happiness is 0.049. This again shows religion has a positive association with happiness. The correlation is statistically significant at 5% level of significance.

4.4 Regression 

Table 4: Summary of the regression model

Model Summary
Model	R	R Square	Adjusted R Square	Std. Error of the Estimate
1	.195a	.038	.037	1.779
a. Predictors: (Constant), How religious are you, How often socially meet with friends, relatives or colleagues

From the model the value of R square is obtained as 0.037. The R square value implies religion and happiness together can explain only 3% variation in the happiness.

Table 5: ANOVA table

ANOVAa
Model	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
1	Regression	243.846	2	121.923	38.541	.000b
Residual	6156.139	1946	3.163
Total	6399.985	1948
a. Dependent Variable: How happy are you
b. Predictors: (Constant), How religious are you, How often socially meet with friends, relatives or colleagues

The overall significance of the model can be understood from the ANOVA table. The p value for significant F is 0.000. As the p value is lower than the significance level of 0.05. The model is statistically significant.

Table 6: Regression coefficient

Coefficientsa
Model	Unstandardized Coefficients	Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.	Collinearity Statistics
B	Std. Error	Beta	Tolerance	VIF
1	(Constant)	6.476	.139		46.495	.000
How often socially meet with friends, relatives or colleagues	.222	.026	.189	8.493	.000	.997	1.003
How religious are you	.023	.013	.039	1.764	.078	.997	1.003
a. Dependent Variable: How happy are you

The regression coefficient of friendship is 0.189. This means friendship a has a positive effect on happiness. With 1 percent increase in friendship happiness increases by 0.19 percent. P value for the associated coefficient is 0.000.  The p value lower than significance level of 0.05 implies rejection of null hypothesis of no significant association between friendship and happiness.

The regression coefficient of friendship is 0.039. This means friendship a has a positive effect on happiness. P value for the associated coefficient is 0.078.  The p value greater than significance level of 0.05 implies acceptance of null hypothesis of no significant association between religion and happiness.

Conclusion 

Hypothesis 1: Relation between happiness and friendship

The first hypothesis aims to evaluate validity of a statistically significant relation between happiness and friendship. The result of multiple linear regression gives a positive coefficient for happiness. This suggest happiness is positively associated with friendship. That means presence of more and more friends enhances happiness. The obtained p value is less than 5% significance level suggesting rejection of null hypothesis of no significant relation between friendship and happiness. The regression result thus supports the claim that friendship is an important determinant of happiness in one’s life. This is consistent with most of the past studies stating a positive relation between friendship and happiness.

Hypothesis 2: Relation between happiness and religion

The second hypothesis has been formulated to evaluate the relation between happiness and religion. From the regression result though a positive coefficient is obtained for religiosity the coefficient however is not statistically significant. The p value exceeds statistical significance level of 0.05. The result thus rejects the null hypothesis of no significant relation supporting the claim that happiness is independent of religion. This contradicts past literatures that found a close association between religion and happiness.

The findings of the research paper suggest that there is a positive significant association between happiness and friendship. The paper however does not found any significant relation between religion and happiness. It can therefore be stated that religion does not have any significant influence on happiness. Friendship on the other hand is a positive significant determinant of happiness. With increase in number of friends’ people document more happiness. Friendship or companionship provide the feeling of happiness. Some studies though found a positive significant association between religiosity and happiness, the present paper however finds no such evidences.  

Happiness is a qualitative aspect of human life. Most of the variation in happiness though explained by intentional action there are other factor influencing happiness as well. For the current study, two factors that are considered to influence happiness are religion and friendship. Many studies documented that religion leads to a higher level of happiness and vice-versa. The paper however finds happiness to be independent of religion. Analysis however confirms that friendship has a beneficial effect on happiness and well-being.

6.0 References 

Aghababaei, N. and B?achnio, A., 2014. Purpose in life mediates the relationship between religiosity and happiness: Evidence from Poland. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 17(8), pp.827-831.

Creswell, J.W. and Creswell, J.D., 2017. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Demir, M., Tyra, A. and Özen-Ç?plak, A., 2018. Be There For Me and I Will Be There For You: Friendship Maintenance Mediates the Relationship Between Capitalization and Happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, pp.1-21.

Demir, M., Vento, I., Boyd, R. and Hanks, E., 2018. My relationships are my estate: Relationships with kin and voluntary bonds as predictors of happiness among emerging adults. In Close Relationships and Happiness across Cultures(pp. 105-129). Springer, Cham.

DeWitt, B.S., 2017. Exploratory research session on the quantization of the gravitational field. The European Physical Journal H, 42(2), pp.159-176.

Edling, C., Rydgren, J. and Bohman, L., 2014. Faith or Social Foci? Happiness, Religion, and Social Networks in Sweden. European sociological review, 30(5), pp.615-626.

Holder, M.D. and Coleman, B., 2015. Children’s friendships and positive well-being. In Friendship and happiness (pp. 81-97). Springer, Dordrecht.

Lynch, S., 2015. Friendship and Happiness From a Philosophical Perspective. In Friendship and Happiness (pp. 3-18). Springer, Dordrecht.

Mandeville, B., 2017. Free thoughts on religion, the church, and national happiness. Routledge.

Sander, W., 2017. Religion, Religiosity, and Happiness. Review of Religious Research, 59(2), pp.251-262.