Recent trends in American family and social life have implications for meaning. Studies reveal that close social and family bonds are vital sources of meaning in life. But compared to generations past, Americans today are waiting longer to get married and have children, having fewer kids, or opting out of marriage and family entirely. These trends don’t appear to simply reflect a reshuffling of how people organize their social lives but instead suggest that we are increasingly less socially connected. Americans today, particularly younger adults, are less trusting of their fellow citizens and less likely to feel that there are people in whom they can confide. Loneliness is on the rise, especially among young adults. And as people spend more time in the digital world of social media, they are often less invested in the face-to-face relationships that best meet social and psychological needs.

With these issues in mind, I set out to explore how modern American men and women—both believers and nonbelievers—think about and experience meaning, and whether there are differences between those who are invested in traditional meaning-providing institutions (i.e., faith and family) and those who are not. To do this, my research team conducted two online surveys of American adult theists and atheists. Among the findings:

• Social relationships and related social themes, such as helping others, emerged as the most prominent sources of meaning for all participants.
• Theists rated family, raising children, spirituality, and religion as more important to meaning than atheists, who rated friends as more important.
• Marriage appears to matter for what people find meaningful. Compared to single individuals, married individuals rated their partner, family, spirituality, and religion as more important to meaning. Single adults rated self-improvement as more important to meaning.