Involvement in the Jehovah’s Witness faith community is associated with enhanced social bonds and conflict resolution. Congregants reported improved interpersonal relationships since joining the faith, with longer membership correlating with better outcomes. Over 85% reported better relationships with family, friends, and neighbors since becoming Jehovah’s Witnesses. Improvements were most pronounced for family relationships. The longer one had been a Witness, the more positive the perceived change in relationships. This pattern suggests the effects of prosocial behaviors over time on relationships of those in the community. (Figure 4.9)
Figure 4.9, Perceived Change in Relationships Since Becoming Jehovah’s Witnesses
Chart Summary
The chart presents stacked horizontal bars showing percentages for perceived changes in interpersonal and conflict relationships since becoming Jehovah’s Witnesses, with 6 response categories: significantly worse, slightly worse, prefer not to answer, same or neutral, slightly better, and significantly better, stacked to 100%. Two categories describing 5 relationships are presented in the chart. The first category, Interpersonal relationships, includes those with family, neighbors, and friends. The second category, Conflict relationships, includes relationships with those who hurt me and those I hurt. Respondents indicated that all 5 types of relationships improved, many significantly, since they became Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the interpersonal category, respondents reported 60.3% significantly better and 28.0% slightly better relationships within the family. With neighbors, 47.5% reported significantly better and 38.7% slightly better relationships. And for friends, 52.8% reported significantly better and 32.2% slightly better relationships. A range of 4.1% to 6.7% reported slightly worse ties in this category. Regarding Conflict relationships, similar improvement is seen, even with slightly higher percentages of prefer not to answer responses. For relationships with those who hurt me, 46.1% report significantly better relationships and 38.4% slightly better, with very small worse categories of less than 4% combining significantly worse and slightly worse. And regarding ties with those I hurt, 44.3% report significantly better and 35.9% report slightly better, again with very small negative segments, reporting less than 3% combining significantly worse and slightly worse. These findings appear in Section 4 of the report.