Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Every year, the Deserate News and Brigham Young University conduct the American Family Survey.

Researchers ask thousands of Americans about the ways they built their families and how they feel about their lives.

And every year, they seem to get the same results, at least when it comes to one demographic.

According to the numbers, some of the happiest people in America are married moms.

And the latest survey, 33% of married women between the ages of 18 and 55, reported that they were completely satisfied with their lives.

That compared to only 15% of single women with no children. And because conservative women

are statistically more likely to be married, the satisfaction stats seem to fall somewhat

neatly along political lines as well. Conservative women report being satisfied at double the rate of progressive women.

Every time these survey results pop up in the news, they're met with attempts to explain them away.

The defensiveness is a bit irritating, but it is understandable.

After all, the idea that conservative married women are happy debunks the prescription that's

offered by the

sexual revolution and second wave feminism for female happiness, a prescription that has now

become an accepted cultural myth. The best life for women goes to this myth is a life without

marriage or children. That advice is just wrong, and it makes a crucial mistake about the nature

of happiness.

The American Family Survey does not ask respondents to rate how pleasant their circumstances are,

or whether, and how frequently respondents get frustrated, anxious, or uncomfortable.

What the survey measures is whether or not people see their lives as having meaning, purpose.

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman has done a great deal of research studying the difference between what he has called instant utility and overall satisfaction.

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