The Relationship Between Psychological

Well-Being and Christian Faith and Practice

in an Australian Population Sample

LESLIE J. FRANCIS
PETER KALDOR1

A random sample of 989 adults in an Australian community survey completed the Bradburn Balanced Affect
Scale together with three measures of Christian faith and practice: belief in God, personal prayer, and church
attendance. The data demonstrated a positive association between all three religious measures and psychological
well-being. The analysis helps to account for discrepant findings in previous research.

Recent years have witnessed a burgeoning academic and popular interest in the relationship
between religiosity, health, and psychological well-being as evidenced, for example, by a 1998
symposium on religion, health, and well-being edited and introduced by Ellison (1998). Reviews
that try to integrate and synthesize findings from disparate empirical studies concerned with the
relationship between religion and well-being face two key problems. The first problem is quite
transparent and generally well recognized in reviews of appropriate psychological tests (Robinson,
Shaver, and Wrightsman 1991; Maltby, Lewis, and Hill 2000). This problem is that different tests
may measure quite different aspects of the broad notion of well-being and religiosity may relate to
different aspects of well-being in different ways. The second problem is less transparent and less
well documented. This problem is that the same tests of well-being may be handled in different
ways. The aim of the present article is to illustrate this second problem by reference to the Bradburn
Balanced Affect Scale.
The Bradburn Balanced Affect Scale proposed by Bradburn (1969) has been widely applied
and tested (Bowling 1991). In the theoretical basis underpinning this instrument, Bradburn pro-
posed a two-dimensional model of psychological well-being, distinguishing between positive
affect and negative affect. In Bradburn’s original studies these two dimensions of psychological
well-being were uncorrelated, leading him to the view that the best indicator of an individual’s
overall feelings of well-being would be provided by the difference between positive affect and
negative affect. According to this view, an individual who scored high on positive affect and low
on negative affect would enjoy the highest overall level of psychological well-being, while an
individual who scored low on positive affect and high on negative affect would suffer the lowest
overall level of psychological well-being. This view gave rise to the notion of balanced affect, and
produced a third score from the Bradburn questionnaire. The real interest in Bradburn’s theoretical
model of psychological well-being resides in the measure of balanced affect.
During the past three decades the Bradburn Balanced Affect Scale has been employed in
six very different studies concerned with the relationship between religion and psychological
well-being. The lack of clear consensus to emerge from these studies may be attributed, at least in
part, to differences in the ways findings have been reported in respect of positive affect, negative
affect, and balanced affect. Different methods of reporting the findings have been used.

Reverend Professor Leslie J. Francis is Director of the Welsh National Centre for Religious Education and Professor
of Practical Theology, University of Wales Bangor, Normal Site, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2PX, Wales, UK. Email:
L.J.Francis@Bangor.ac.uk.
1 Dr. Peter Kaldor is Director of National Church Life Survey Research, Uniting Church Board of Mission, Box A2178,

Sydney, New South Wales 1235, Australia.

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 41:1 (2002) 179–184

180 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

First, some studies have reported solely on the balanced affect score. In an early study, Graney
(1975) employed a revised version of the Bradburn Balanced Affect Scale in a study among
60 women between the ages of 62 and 89 concerned with the relationship between happiness and
social participation. His analysis found a significant positive correlation between the balanced
affect score and attendance at religious services. In another early study, Hay and Morisy (1978)
included the Bradburn Balanced Affect Scale in a study of reports of ecstatic, paranormal, or
religious experience conducted among 1,865 adults in Britain. Their analysis found that people
reporting religious experience are significantly more likely to report a high level of psychological
well-being, as recorded on the balanced affect scale, than those who do not.
A second group of studies have reported separately on the positive affect scale and on the neg-
ative affect scale, but have ignored the measure of balanced affect. For example, Yates, Chalmer,
St James, Follansbee, and McKegney (1981) administered the Bradburn Balanced Affect Scale
to 71 patients with advanced cancer together with a 10-item measure of religious belief and ques-
tions concerning the importance of church, attendance at church, and feelings of closeness to God
or nature. High scores on the three indices of importance of church, attendance at church, and
closeness to God were significant predictors of higher scores on the positive affect scale, but not of
scores on the negative affect scale. The index of religious belief was significantly correlated with
neither positive affect nor negative affect. Frankel and Hewitt (1994) administered the Bradburn
Balanced Affect Scale to two groups of students at the University of Western Ontario, together
with a range of other measures, including an index of traditional Christian beliefs derived from
Bibby (1987). The first group comprised 172 members of a number of Christian clubs or societies.
The second group comprised 127 students enrolled in first- and second-year sociology courses.
Comparing the two groups they found significantly higher positive affect and significantly lower
negative affect among the Christian group. They do not report on the correlations between the
measures employed.
A third group of studies reported separately on all three measures, namely, positive affect,
negative affect, and balanced affect. For example, Koenig, Siegler, and George (1989) included a
modified form of the Bradburn Balanced Affect Scale in their study of religious and nonreligious
coping among a stratified random sample of 100 individuals between the ages of 55 and 80. Their
analysis found no significant relationship between frequency of religious coping and scores of
positive affect, negative affect, or balanced affect.
Francis, Jones, and Wilcox (1997) administered the Bradburn Balanced Affect Scale to 242
16–19 year olds in the north of England, alongside the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity
(Francis and Stubbs 1987). Once again their analysis found no significant relationship between
attitude toward Christianity and any of the three Bradburn measures.
Against this background, the aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between
the Bradburn measure of psychological well-being and religion in a carefully constructed pop-
ulation survey in Australia. This study also incorporates three indices of Christian belief and
practice intended to access somewhat different dimensions of religiosity. Belief is conceptualized
in terms of belief in God. Practice is conceptualized in terms of the established distinction be-
tween intrinsic and extrinsic orientation (Batson and Ventis 1982). Extrinsic practice is accessed
through church attendance and intrinsic practice is accessed through personal prayer as proposed
by Francis (1997a).

METHOD

Sample

The Australian Community Survey 1997–1998 was conducted among a sample of Australian
adults drawn from the electoral rolls. In drawing the sample, the researchers divided the population
into eight different types of communities. Metropolitan communities were divided into four types
CHRISTIANITY AND WELL-BEING 181

based on socioeconomic measures, and rural communities into another four types based on the
population size of the community. As a result, samples of around 1,000 people or more were
achieved for each type of community, but in a way that could be weighted to represent the total
population. The total number of questionnaires completed was more than 8,500, almost 50 percent
of the number delivered. The variables employed in the present analysis were included in 989
of the completed questionnaires. The respondents were divided between males (45 percent) and
females (55 percent); 14 percent were aged 15–29, 24 percent were in their 30s, 22 percent in
their 40s, 17 percent in their 50s, 11 percent in their 60s, and 13 percent over the age of 70.

Measures

Psychological well-being was assessed by the Bradburn Balanced Affect Scale (Bradburn
1969). This instrument comprises two five-item measures of positive affect and negative affect.
Each item was assessed on a dichotomous scale: yes and no.
Church attendance was assessed on an eight-point scale: never, less than yearly, once or twice
a year, several times a year, monthly, two or three times a month, weekly, and more than weekly.
Personal prayer was assessed on a five-point scale: never, hardly ever, occasionally, at least
weekly, and daily.
Belief in God was assessed on a four-point scale defined as: there is a personal God; there is
some sort of spirit or life force; I don’t really know what to think; I don’t really think there is any
sort of spirit, God, or life force.

RESULTS

In this sample the question on belief revealed that 33 percent of the population believed in
a personal God, 40 percent expressed belief in some sort of spirit or life force, 17 percent were
agnostic, and 11 percent did not believe in any sort of spirit, God, or life force.
The question on church attendance revealed that 52 percent never attended church, 8 percent
attended less than yearly, 13 percent attended once or twice a year, 7 percent attended several
times a year, 7 percent attended at least monthly, and 13 percent attended at least once a week.
The question on personal prayer revealed that 32 percent never prayed, 15 percent hardly
ever prayed, 21 percent prayed occasionally, 12 percent prayed at least weekly, and 20 percent
prayed daily.
The reliability of the components of the Bradburn Balanced Affect Scale was assessed in
terms of the alpha coefficient (Cronbach 1951). Both components achieved a satisfactory level
of internal reliability for instruments of this length: negative affect, 0.69; positive affect, 0.70.
Because of the way the balanced affect scale is constructed in terms of a constant added to the
arithmetic difference between modified forms of the negative affect and positive affect scales, it
is not possible to assess the reliability of this scale in terms of the alpha coefficient.
Table 1 presents the mean scale scores for males and females separately on the three indices
of positive affect, negative affect, and balanced affect. These statistics demonstrate that females
recorded a significantly higher score than males on the scale of positive affect. There were no
significant differences between males and females on the scale of negative affect or on the scale
of balanced affect. Table 1 also presents the mean scores for males and females separately on the
indices of church attendance, belief in God, and personal prayer. These statistics demonstrate that
females recorded significantly higher scores than males on all three indices of religiosity.
Table 2 presents the correlation matrix for positive affect, negative affect, balanced affect,
belief in God, church attendance, personal prayer, sex, and age. These statistics demonstrate that
sex is a significant predictor of positive affect and of all three religious variables, and that age
is a significant predictor of both positive and negative affect and of two of the three religious
variables. Females are more likely than males to attend church, to believe in God, and to pray.
182 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

TABLE 1
RELIABILITY AND MEAN SCALE SCORES BY SEX

Male Female

Scale Alpha Mean SD Mean SD F P<

Church attendance 2.44 2.19 2.81 2.29 6.62 0.01
Belief in God 2.81 1.03 3.04 0.87 13.55 0.001
Personal prayer 2.35 1.48 2.90 1.48 32.83 0.001
Negative affect 0.69 1.47 1.53 1.48 1.52 0.01 NS
Positive affect 0.70 3.59 1.45 3.84 1.33 7.85 0.01
Balanced affect 7.12 2.38 7.36 2.23 2.57 NS

TABLE 2
CORRELATION MATRIX

Personal Belief Church Balanced Negative

Prayer in God Attendance Age Sex Affect Affect
Positive affect +0.1028 +0.1380 +0.0878 −0.1623 +0.0895 +0.7680 −0.2494
0.001 0.001 0.01 0.001 0.01 0.001 0.001
Negative affect −0.0748 −0.0698 −0.0930 −0.2062 +0.0037 −0.8117
0.05 0.05 0.01 0.001 NS 0.001
Balanced affect +0.1114 +0.1291 +0.1142 +0.0385 +0.0514
0.001 0.001 0.001 NS NS
Sex +0.1708 +0.1175 +0.0700 −0.0775
0.001 0.001 0.01 0.05
Age +0.1683 +0.0392 +0.1730
0.001 NS 0.001
Church attendance +0.6265 +0.5092
0.001 0.001
Belief in God +0.6230
0.001

TABLE 3
PARTIAL CORRELATION MATRIX CONTROLLING FOR AGE AND SEX

Personal Belief Church Balanced Negative

Prayer in God Attendance Affect Affect
Positive affect +0.1282 +0.1338 +0.1154 +0.7844 −0.2934
0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001
Negative affect −0.0403 −0.0632 −0.0593 −0.8231
NS NS NS 0.001
Balanced affect +0.1023 +0.1234 +0.1070
0.01 0.001 0.001
Church attendance +0.6167 +0.5022
0.001 0.001
Belief in God +0.6194
0.001
CHRISTIANITY AND WELL-BEING 183

TABLE 4
REGRESSION EQUATIONS

Negative Affect Increase Positive Affect Increase Balanced Affect Increase

R2 R2 F P< R2 R2 F P< R2 R2 F P<

Sex 0.0000 0.0000 0.0 NS 0.0063 0.0063 5.9 0.05 0.0023 0.0023 2.2 NS
Age 0.0372 0.0372 36.0 0.001 0.0413 0.0349 33.9 0.001 0.0026 0.0003 0.3 NS
Personal 0.0403 0.0031 3.0 NS 0.0634 0.0221 21.9 0.001 0.0189 0.0163 15.4 0.001
prayer
Belief in God 0.0448 0.0045 4.3 0.05 0.0725 0.0091 9.2 0.01 0.0295 0.0106 10.2 0.001
Church 0.0461 0.0013 1.3 NS 0.0728 0.0003 0.3 NS 0.0307 0.0012 1.1 NS
attendance

This is consistent with the general findings of previous research concerned with the relation-
ship between sex and religiosity (Francis 1997b). Females also record higher scores than males
on the scale of positive affect. Older people are more likely than younger people to attend church
and to pray. Older people also record lower scores than younger people on the two scales of
negative affect and positive affect.
In view of the possible contamination of the relationship between religion and well-being
caused by age and sex, Table 3 presents the partial correlation matrix controlling for age and sex.
The statistics presented in Table 3 make it clear that, after controlling for age and sex, positive affect
and negative affect are related to Christian faith and practice in somewhat different ways. On the
one hand, personal prayer, belief in God, and church attendance are all positively correlated with
positive affect. On the other hand, personal prayer, belief in God, and church attendance are all in-
dependent of negative effect. The main finding that balanced affect is positively correlated with re-
ligiosity must, therefore, be due entirely to the relationship between religiosity and positive affect.
As a final step in the data analysis, Table 4 employs multiple regression to examine the
simultaneous effect of the three religious variables on the three components of well-being sepa-
rately after controlling for sex and age. These statistics demonstrate that, after taking into account
personal prayer and belief in God, church attendance contributes no additional predictive power
in respect of well-being.

CONCLUSION

The present study has explored the relationship between Bradburn’s measure of psychological
well-being and three indices of Christian belief and practice in a random sample of 997 Australian
adults. The key finding from this study is that all three indices of Christian belief and practice
(belief in God, church attendance, and personal prayer) are significant predictors of a higher level
of psychological well-being as assessed by balanced affect, after controlling for age and sex.
Individuals who believe in God, attend church, and pray record higher scores of balanced affect,
in comparison with individuals who do not believe in God, do not attend church, and do not pray.
This finding is consistent with two findings of the previous studies that report a positive
relationship between religiosity and Bradburn’s measure of balanced affect (Graney 1975; Hay
and Morisy 1978). Two other studies, however, have failed to find any significant relationship
between Bradburn’s measure of balanced affect and religiosity (Koenig, Siegler, and George 1989;
Francis, Jones, and Wilcox 1997).
The present study goes further, however, and provides a clue that may help to account for the
discrepant findings from previous research. In the present study, while positive affect is positively
correlated with religiosity, negative affect is unrelated to religiosity. A similar finding was reported
184 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

by Yates, Chalmer, St James, Follansbee, and McKegney (1981). It may be the case, therefore,
that in some studies that report only on balanced affect scores, a positive relationship between
religiosity and positive affect is submerged in the lack of relationship between religiosity and
negative affect. In light of this potential problem it may be wise for future studies to report
independently on the three measures of positive affect, negative affect, and balanced affect.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The 1998 Australian Community Survey, conducted by Edith Cowan University and NCLS Research, was made
possible by a grant from the Australian Research Council, and the support of ANGLICARE (NSW) and the Board of
Mission of the Uniting Church (NSW). The research has been jointly supervised by Professor Alan Black and Dr. Peter
Kaldor. The research team included John Bellamy, Keith Castle, and Philip Hughes.

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