Psychological Benefits of Family History Research

In 2022, three Brigham Young University professors published a paper dealing with the psychological benefits of conducting family history work:

Barry M. Lunt, Kelly R. Summers, David A. Wood, “Improving Psychological Well-Being of Young Adults by Conducting Family History Research at a Religious University,” The Journal of Genealogy and Family History 6 (2022): 66-73.

You can read the article at https://doi.org/10.24240/23992964.2023.1234541. It shows that those who participate more in family history work have higher self-esteem, reduced anxiety, and greater resilience.

The article cites previous research that found a link between knowledge of one’s family history and measures of psychological well-being. The authors sought to test the idea that participating in family history research is also associated with positive psychological benefits.

The participants in the study were in two groups: students enrolled in an introductory family history course or student volunteers not in a family history course. Each participant had a FamilySearch.org account that tracked their contributions. Students completed a survey in the first week of the fall of 2021 semester, then completed the survey again in the last week of the semester. Students in the introductory family history course learned about methods for conducting genealogical research, evaluation of information, conducting research in historic records, analyzing evidence, and providing documentation for sources.

Did the students who participated in this course report less anxiety and more psychological well-being? The findings showed that yes, those who participated in the family history course increased their self-esteem and reported less anxiety.

Figure 1 from the article – on page 69

Compared with those who didn’t take a family history course, the family history students had larger increases in self-esteem and a significantly larger decrease in anxiety. The authors believe this is due to the family history course and having greater knowledge of their family history; and that both of these lead to greater family identification. The article’s introduction discusses the importance of identify and family:

We postulate that participating in family history will enhance psychological well-being by enhancing group identification of the researcher with his or her family, both living and deceased (i.e., family identification). Social identity theory hypothesizes that belonging to groups is a critical component of one’s identity and that a sense of social identity can give purpose and meaning to life. Specific to psychological well- being, research has shown that strong group identities are associated with positive self-esteem. This is particularly true for family identification—the greater the individual identifies with the family the greater their self-esteem (page 67).

In light of these findings, perhaps we may want to help younger relatives increase their knowledge of family history and involve them in our family history research. Our efforts may help them feel more a part of their own family, which increases their psychological well-being. For some resources at our website about how to involve younger relatives and children in family history research, see: https://familylocket.com/families-and-children/.