Teleios Research Evaluates the Effect of Christian Persecution on Women's Wellbeing

CHARLESTON, S.C. - April 23, 2019 - PRLog -- Protecting and providing opportunities to potentially vulnerable individuals marks a compassionate society. Recent data by Teleios Research showed that populations in countries with greater freedom, which typically are Christian, demonstrated better overall wellbeing, and other legal, educational, and social measures that could enhance wellbeing, than in countries that persecute Christians.

In this current study Teleios evaluated wellbeing and associated economic and legal measures that could affect wellbeing of women specifically, who in some cultures are considered vulnerable due to repression and abuse.

For our analysis we used the top 50 countries from the Human Freedom Index compared to the 50 top countries persecuting Christianity from the Open Doors 2018 World Watch List (https://www.opendoorsusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WWL2018-BookletNew.pdf).

This study found that women in the freest countries, compared to countries that persecute Christians, demonstrated greater mean wellbeing (23% vs.18% thriving; scale range 0-100).

Further, women in freer countries also showed better scores in each measure analyzed that potentially could affect the wellbeing of women (free countries' values listed first): literacy rate (98% vs. 77%), life expectancy (83 vs. 73 years), school life expectancy (17 vs. 12 years), labor force participation (54% vs. 44%), maternal mortality rate (15 vs. 180 per 100,000), lifetime experience of violence (22% vs. 34%), sex trafficking (20 vs. 57; scale range 0-100), and life satisfaction (6.6 vs. 5.1; scale range 0-10; P ≤ 0.006 for each comparison).

Further, of the top 50 countries on the Human Freedom Index, 35 were listed as Christian countries by the Central Intelligence Agency versus 4 of the persecuting countries (P < 0.01).

This study suggests that women in countries that are most free not only demonstrate better wellbeing but these nations overwhelmingly are associated with numerous legal, security, health, and educational measures potentially associated with enhanced wellbeing for women. Further, free countries are much more likely to be Christian.

In contrast, countries who persecute Christians also are associated with poorer measures for women's freedom, life satisfaction, and wellbeing.

Other findings from Teleios Research are on our website (http://www.teleiosresearch.com/).

WC Stewart, AC Kleinhans, JA Stewart, LA Nelson

About Teleios - Teleios is a non-profit foundation that seeks to demonstrate the truth of scripture and the Christian faith through scientific methods by providing evidence for the positive results of a biblically-based lifestyle. Prior studies conducted by Teleios have shown that the practice of the Christian faith (praise, prayer, fellowship, service and Bible study) and security of salvation increases well-being while reducing guilt.