Back to School Survey: Americans Make the Grade in Personal Lives, Career Satisfaction

NEW YORK, Aug. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As students across the United States head back to school, Euro RSCG Worldwide thought it was time for the nation as a whole to get a report card—on modern life. So we asked a random and representative sample of American adults online to grade 14 important aspects of their own life. And against expectations, despite all the gloom-and-doom media headlines that routinely characterize every aspect of public life in the U.S., many Americans are scoring good grades in their personal life.

In fact, majorities of Americans give themselves top-two-box grades (as with school report cards, those are "A" and "B") in 10 of the 14 dimensions that we explored. Is this another case of grade inflation, or maybe whistling in the dark?

Matt Ryan, Chairman of Euro RSCG New York, gets to the heart of this public-private paradox: "Looking at these findings, we must ask how it is that so many Americans are rating their life so well when there is so much angst in the air. We suspect the answer comes down to perspective. When Americans look at the big picture, they see unremitting angst and feel powerless to do much about it. When they are asked to focus on specific areas in their own life, however, the picture changes and they feel more positive—possibly a case of counting their blessings."

Among the intriguing findings:

• There's a yawning gender divide on stress management: Sixty-two percent of men score it A or B, versus just 42 percent of women.
• There's a gender gap on weight management, too, with 54 percent of men scoring A or B, versus 39 percent of women.
• Likewise on physical health, more men score themselves A or B than women: 51 percent versus 45 percent.
• On all 14 dimensions, Euro RSCG's proprietary Prosumers segmentation* scores more A or B than the average, especially on sense of control (75 percent versus 64 percent).
• Only 42 percent of Americans score themselves A or B on finances/financial security, while 17 percent rate themselves D and 9 percent rate themselves F (fail).

*Prosumers are leading-edge consumers who embrace change and are hyperconnected.
**New traditionalists are those who think longingly of yesteryear.

About Euro RSCG Worldwide

Euro RSCG Worldwide is a leading integrated marketing communications agency and was the first agency to be named Global Agency of the Year by both Advertising Age and Campaign in the same year. Euro RSCG is made up of 233 offices in 75 countries and provides advertising, marketing, corporate communications and digital and social media solutions to clients including Air France,  Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Danone Group, IBM, Kraft Foods, Lacoste, L'Oreal, Merck, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Reckitt Benckiser, sanofi-aventis and Volvo. Euro RSCG Worldwide is the largest unit of Havas, a world leader in communications (Euronext: HAV.PA) (Paris: HAV.PA).

Jared Kreiner
Euro RSCG Worldwide
212.886.4269
[email protected]

SOURCE Euro RSCG Worldwide