Researchers at Harvard University disclosed findings that loneliness is linked to a lack of civic participation and reduced engagement in socializing, including within religious communities, alongside other factors affecting Americans—especially young people.
The disclosure came from a research update at the end of last year by Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program, led by Brendan Case, associate director for research, and Tyler VanderWeele, director of the program. The research into the crisis of community and belonging in the United States—described as “relatively neglected in recent policy discussions of these issues”—came in response to a public health advisory issued in May 2023 by then–U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, which described an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” in the United States.
“By some measures, half of Americans now report being lonely, with the highest proportions found among young people,” said the Harvard update.
“Marriage and birth rates are at all-time lows, and religious affiliation and participation, along with other forms of civic participation, have declined steeply as well.
“This is cause for lament, but also represents a significant threat to public health, since social disconnection and loneliness predict increases in unhappiness, depression, anxiety, and even premature mortality.”
Michael Wear, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Christianity and Public Life in Washington, D.C., a think tank focused on encouraging civic engagement, told Christian Daily International that he “absolutely” agreed with the Harvard researchers, adding that they are “doing excellent work on this and so much else.”
“What is important to be clear on is that when they are talking about declining civic participation, they are not referring to ‘doom-scrolling,’ watching cable news, or otherwise consuming political content,” added Wear.
“It is both the rise of politics as a source of entertainment and the decline of politics and civic life as a forum for positive participation with others that are contributing to loneliness.
“I increasingly am convinced that an even more searing and urgent diagnosis is not that of loneliness, but of the estrangement that can be promoted by aspects of our economic, technological, and political systems and norms.”
The advisory noted a long-term decline in social connectedness in the United States and cited 2020 data showing that half of all Americans reported being lonely, especially young people. The researchers supported Murthy’s ideas for redress, such as strengthening social structures in local communities, building a culture of connection, and reforming digital environments—particularly noting young people’s overuse of smartphones and social media.
However, the Harvard researchers said the loneliness epidemic’s core causes and harmful effects require deeper remedial work.
Economic factors were cited in the research report: “Fostering strong families, rich friendships, and deep participation in communal life are clearly affected by having adequate time for leisure and social life, financial stability, low levels of financial stress, and the dignity of socially valued work,” the Harvard researchers said.
“In recent decades, each of these four foundational elements has been eroded, especially for Americans without college degrees, by stagnant or declining real median wages and the increase of low-skilled, ‘dead-end’ jobs with unpredictable schedules and tenuous contracts.”
These trends, in turn, stem from complex causes such as the increase of industrial automation, inadequate investment in job-specific education, and competition from low-skilled immigrant labor.
“Communities with low-paying and erratically scheduled jobs will often struggle to foster stable families, clubs, civic associations, and religious communities,” the researchers said, adding that the loss of stable jobs for less-educated Americans has eroded a way of life and contributed to what they described as “the rising epidemic of ‘deaths of despair,’ from suicide, drug overdoses, and alcohol abuse.”
“We need to help these communities,” the researchers added.
A particular concern is the loneliness of young people, driven largely by screen time but also by a decline in independent play earlier in childhood.
“Play in which kids socialize with one another without adult direction is increasingly crowded out by the expansion of the school day, growth in adult-monitored extracurricular activities (e.g., sports), and increasingly anxious parenting that keeps kids from unsupervised play, especially outside the home,” the researchers said. “The result is that in-person socializing is declining among young people.”
The decline of religious community and marriage were also identified as significant factors influencing the loneliness epidemic. Murthy had suggested cultivating social connection “outside of chosen traditional means and structures.” However, the Harvard researchers did not appear to fully support this view.
“These two [religious community and marriage] are probably humanity’s oldest forms of community, present in nearly all societies, and so it is unsurprising that they have consistently been shown—not least in our own research—to have strong effects in promoting flourishing, and indeed to do so more strongly than other forms of belonging,” they said.
Religious participation decline may be influenced by factors such as a lack of belief, since about half of Americans are religious but do not attend services. However, other influences were also noted: “‘Secular competition’ from work, leisure activities, or children’s sports may partially play a role,” the researchers said.
Unmarried people receive greater financial benefits than married couples, which the researchers believe has contributed to declining marriage rates and a subsequent rise in loneliness. However, birth control was also cited as a factor.
“The advent over the last century of increasingly effective means of artificial birth control, which, by making it possible to reliably sever the link between sex and children, undermined one of the key traditional rationales for marriage,” the researchers said.
“Cultural expectations, and costs, around marriage also play a role. Most Americans do still want to marry, and we need to find ways to enable this.”
Looking ahead, the researchers said the economic fortunes of less-educated Americans must be revived alongside “a greater measure of freedom and independence in the lives of young people, and a revitalization of the critical institutions of religious community and marriage.”
Proposed remedies include eliminating indirect marriage penalties from welfare programs and reviving Sunday closing laws in localities—still evident in parts of Europe and on Saturdays in Israel—to “enable religious service attendance and provide all workers with a day of rest.”
“Beyond public policy, however, we need a broader cultural, and even spiritual, reorientation toward the good of community,” the researchers concluded.
“Many of us instinctively turn to community during the holiday season, making extra efforts to spend time in celebration with family and friends. But what if we carried that commitment to the importance of being together beyond December?
“What if parents always took seriously the importance of independent and unstructured socializing for kids’ well-being? What if religious community were valued not only at Christmas but throughout the year? What if each of us made a deliberate effort to nourish loving relationships that might otherwise languish?”
