Self-assessed importance of domains of flourishing: Demographics and correlations with well-being

Research on flourishing has advanced despite limited knowledge about the extent to which flourishing domains are actually valued. This paper examines support for six flourishing domains - emotional health, physical health, purpose, character strengths, social connectedness, and financial security. A survey of 2,370 randomly sampled employees of a large, national, self-insured employer, demonstrated that these domains are nearly universally valued. A two-factor model, which fit the data best, suggested the presence of two distinct dimensions of material and psychosocial well-being importance. Women and men ranked the six domains in the same order, though women ranked each more highly than men. Having a daily spiritual practice was the strongest predictor of importance for all domains but financial security. The importance of the domains of well-being was associated with the self-reported experience of the domains of well-being. The importance of character strengths had the highest correlations with the experience of all domains.

Automated summary

Research has found that emotional health, physical health, purpose, character strengths, social connectedness, and financial security are nearly universally valued. Men and women rank these domains in the same order, but women rate each domain more highly. Having a daily spiritual practice is the strongest predictor of importance for all domains, while character strengths have the highest correlations with the experience of all domains.