Posted by 
As we said in previous posts, Americans are increasingly unhappy. According to The Atlantic “In 2018, happiness among young adults in America fell to a record low. The share of adults ages 18 to 34 reporting that they were “very happy” in life fell to 25 percent—the lowest level that the General Social Survey, a key barometer of American social life, has ever recorded for that population. Happiness fell most among young men—with only 22 percent of young men (and 28 percent of young women) reporting that they were “very happy” in 2018.”
Concurrent with the increase in unhappiness among the 18 to 34 cohort is what The Atlantic has dubbed “The Sex Recession,” data for which is presented in the figure below. What that figure shows is that for 19-34 year old males, the proportion which were celibate (voluntary of otherwise) for an entire year doubled between 1989 and 2018. There was a similar, though less pronounced change in celibacy among young women. One explanation for this “sex recession” has been the remarkable decline in marriage. In 1972, 53% of 19-34 year old males and 65% of 19-34 year old females were married. By 2018, the percentages had declined to 21% and 35% respectively.
Less sex is correlated with more unhappiness. Again, from The Atlantic: “Young adults who have sex at least once a week are about 35 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who have no sex.” David Blanchflower conducted another study trying to determine what makes Americans happy. His paper “finds that sexual activity enters strongly positively in happiness equations…Married people have more sex than those who are single, divorced, widowed or separated. ” Moreover, the maximum amount of happiness comes with one partner, not several.
As we have already pointed out religious belief and religious practice are on the decline in America (and around the world). Again, The Atlantic says, “The share of young adults who attend religious services more than monthly has fallen from 38 percent in 1972 to 27 percent in 2018, even as the share who never attend has risen rapidly. Among young men, nonattendance is much more common than regular attendance, and the gap is steadily growing.” “And being religious means being happier. Young adults who attend religious services more than once a month are about 40 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who are not religious at all, according to our analysis of the GSS. (People with very infrequent religious attendance are even less happy than never-attenders; in terms of happiness, a little religion is worse than none.)”
What are we to make of all this? Young adults are less happy today than they were 50 years ago. They are also more often single than they were, less religious and having less sex. The final two points are actually related. A Study by the Institute of Family Studies at Brigham Young University found that “When it comes to relationship quality in heterosexual relationships, highly religious couples enjoy higher-quality relationships and more sexual satisfaction, compared to less/mixed religious couples and secular couples. For instance, women in highly religious relationships are about 50% more likely to report that they are strongly satisfied with their sexual relationship than their secular and less religious counterparts.” According to a different study by the University of Indiana, those who say “I do” and stick with it, have sex five times more often than their unmarried neighbors.
Which brings us to the Book of Proverbs and the blessings (happiness) that follow monogamy.
