Within the last two decades, social science research on work as a calling has rapidly grown. To date, knowledge regarding prevalence and demographic differences of calling in the United States derives from data collected mainly from regionally limited and/or occupationally homogenous samples. The present study used data from the Portraits of American Life Study, a nationally stratified panel study of religion in the United States (U.S.), to estimate calling’s prevalence in the U.S. Our findings represent the first known population estimates of seeking, perceiving, and living a calling in the U.S. Results revealed that calling is a relevant concept for many U.S. adults, with 43% endorsing “mostly true” or “totally true” to the statement “I have a calling to a particular kind of work.” Small differences for presence of and search for a calling emerged across age groups, employment statuses, and levels of importance of God or spirituality. For living a calling, significant differences were identified only for importance of God or spirituality, contrasting with previous findings that suggested that living a calling varies as a function of income and social status. Implications for research and practice are explored.

在过去的二十年中，以工作为使命的社会科学研究迅速发展。迄今为止，关于美国呼叫的流行率和人口统计学差异的知识主要来自于区域受限和/或职业同质样本收集的数据。本研究使用来自美国宗教的全国分层小组研究肖像生活研究的数据来估计美国的电话普及率。我们的发现代表了人们对寻求，感知和生活的首次估计。结果表明，对许多美国成年人来说，打电话是一个相关的概念，其中43％的人赞同“我对某项特定工作有要求”这一说法，其中“大部分是正确的”或“是完全正确的”。跨年龄组，就业状况以及上帝或灵性的重要性等级之间，存在感和寻求呼唤之间存在细微差异。在生活中，只有在上帝或灵性的重要性上才发现了显着差异，这与先前的发现表明生活中的召唤随着收入和社会地位的变化而不同。探索对研究和实践的意义。