Americans feel less sense of well being, according to a recent Gallup poll. You can see the poll results.

The report notes that the Life Evaluation sub-index fell 14.3 points from a high of 47.4 in February to a low of 33.1 in November. The Life Evaluation Index categorizes respondents as either “thriving”, “struggling”, or “suffering”, in accordance with how they rate their current lives as well as their expectation of where they will be in five years using a “ladder” scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10, where “0″ indicates the worst possible life and “10″ the best possible life. Beginning in April, the number of struggling Americans outnumbered those who are thriving. A key finding from the poll is that regardless of age, gender, income, or marital status, every group experienced a drop in their Well-Being Index score from January to December of 2008.
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The following was published recently in the Eugene Register Guard.

The severe economic downturn that Oregon is experiencing will affect the psychological wellbeing of many Oregon families. These effects are just as real as the job loss and foreclosures that will result from the downturn. Their impact will be detrimental both to the economically distressed families and to their communities.

Job loss and economic difficulties have well established effects on marital relations and parenting. Oregonians who lose a job will naturally worry and feel sad and anxious. Indeed, these losses change brain chemistry and the immune system for the worse. Many may feel shame and a sense of loss of status. Husbands and wives will become more irritable and conflict will rise. For many families, the result will be divorce, which will further worsen families’ economic wellbeing and their children’s wellbeing. Children of divorce have more conduct problems, psychological difficulties, and academic failure. Many continue to have problems as adults.
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