Family values survey finds parenting steady as marriage rate declines

Americans say parenting is more central to their identity than being a spouse or partner as the U.S. marriage rate declines, a survey has found.

The Deseret News poll released Tuesday found that the share of married adults dropped from 55% of those 25 and older in 2015 to 51% in 2023 while the rate of people identifying as parents held steady. The Salt Lake City media outlet has surveyed U.S. attitudes about marriage and family annually for nine years.

Researchers discovered “storm clouds” in a widening divide between how church-going Republicans and non-religious Democrats view matrimony, according to Christopher F. Karpowitz, the survey’s co-investigator.

“The biggest change in softening of support for the idea of marriage has come among people who are themselves very likely to marry,” said Mr. Karpowitz, a research director at Brigham Young University. “So people of incomes over $120,000, people with a college degree — we also see … some softening among Democrats generally.”

Mr. Karpowitz called these findings a worrisome sign of “culture war tensions.”

“On the other hand, on the right we see some concerns as well, in terms of willingness to fund families with public programs, especially those at the low end of the income spectrum,” he added.

According to the report of the findings, church-going Republicans were “clearly more approving of marriage” but “far less willing” than Democrats to support the institution with tax dollars.

“Republicans clearly like marriage, and increasingly approve of it just as much as they did several years ago, more if they go to church,” the report said. “Approval of marriage thus codes as being somewhat on the ‘right.’”

Democrats responding to the survey supported public spending programs for families and children, but the report noted “they are less convinced that marriage is necessary to support children.”

Other highlights from the 136-question survey:

• More than one-third of adults surveyed said books with LGBTQ characters should not be available in schools.

• Most think sex education in school should emphasize “personal hygiene, contraception and healthy relationships,” but only half said it should teach the importance of consent.

• Nearly half found it acceptable to spank their children as a form of discipline.

• Respondents identified mental health as the No. 1 issue affecting their families, with many saying they felt isolated or left out “some of the time” or “often.”

While parents expressed concerns about social media, more than 6 in 10 allowed their children aged 10-18 to access Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. More than 5 in 10 said their children used Facebook and Snapchat.

Analysts from the conservative American Enterprise Institute served on the survey advisory board. They hosted a panel discussion of the results on Tuesday morning.

W. Bradford Wilcox, a senior fellow at AEI, said the survey confirmed his research showing ideology has become a more accurate predictor of marriage than religion.

“When you look at how conservatives function, what you see is that they’re more likely to get married now in the first place, and they’re also more likely to be happily married in the second place,” Mr. Wilcox said.

YouGov conducted the nationally representative poll of 3,000 adults online Aug. 3-15 for Deseret and BYU’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

Deseret News, one of Utah’s oldest newspapers, is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.