American Family Survey shows significant increase in economic concerns

In the 10 years since the American Family Survey — an annual collaboration by the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University, the Deseret News and BYU’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy — first surveyed thousands of Americans about their relationships and family experiences, a few things have remained unchanged: People worry about families generally, but they are happy with their own family; people want the government to help families; and people are concerned about how their kids are doing.

But one prominent change the American Family Survey has found over the past decade is a significant increase in economic concerns and a corresponding decline in worries about cultural concerns that might affect families.

For example, according to the recently released 2024 survey, 71 percent of respondents identified economic challenges as one of the most important issues affecting American families, an increase of approximately 20 percentage points since 2015. By contrast, fewer than half of Americans cited cultural issues, such as a decline in religious faith or an increase in sexual permissiveness, as a concern, down from 70 percent in 2015.

“The economy has always caused worry for many Americans, but in the 10 years since we first began the American Family Survey, it has become an even more pressing issue for families — far surpassing their cultural concerns,” said Christopher Karpowitz, co-director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy and professor of political science at Brigham Young University. “This was particularly evident after the end of pandemic-era government aid programs that benefitted many families, and after the last few years’ rise in inflation, which close to 60 percent of Americans cite as a major concern.”

As it does every year, the survey compared the responses from participants across the political spectrum. While there are few partisan differences in Americans’ reports of their day-to-day family life, there are much larger partisan gaps in attitudes about the importance of marriage and family and on social issues.

For example, nearly 8 in 10 Republicans believe that marriage is needed to create strong families, compared with just 4 in 10 Democrats. While only a few Americans are actively hostile to marriage, Republicans strongly support marriage as a cornerstone of strong families, while Democrats tend to prioritize personal commitment over legal status. Republicans are also more likely to report being currently married than are Democrats, regardless of age. One area of common ground is that majorities of both Democrats and Republicans believe that marriage helps children and families financially.

In light of the partisan similarities and differences in the experience of family life and attitudes about marriage, the report explores the possibilities for a bipartisan political coalition to support American families. The findings from the survey shows that while there are possibilities for common ground, ideological disagreements mean that Democrats and Republicans each have significant potential blind spots that complicate the creation of such a coalition.

For example, Republicans are far less supportive than Democrats of government programs designed to help families, even in the face of clear evidence that many Americans feel their families would benefit from them. Republicans are also hesitant to support policies aimed at unmarried parents, despite the fact that Republicans tend to worry more about the lack of committed married families.

Democrats, on the other hand, tend to simply be reluctant to privilege marriage as an institution — only 34 percent (versus 67 percent of Republicans) favor policies that encourage marriage — even though the research on how married-parent families help ameliorate inequality and make the poorest among us better off is quite compelling. Democrats also seem to worry about being judgmental or restrictive of diverse family forms, despite evidence that marriage helps families financially and shields children from economic hardship.

Where Democrats and Republicans converge on this issue is with the more moderate members of the parties, as well as those who attend religious services. Fifty-two percent of moderate Republicans, for example, and 50 percent who attend religious services support spending more on government and community programs to help families versu 39 percent of conservative Republicans and 38 percent of those who don’t attend services. For Democrats, 48 percent of moderates and 66 percent of those who attend religious services favor policies that encourage two-parent homes for children, versus 33 percent of liberals and 25 percent of those who don’t attend services. Notably, neither party wants the government encouraging people to have children. Just a quarter of the public favors that type of encouragement.

“American families will continue to face financial issues in the future as the government increases cuts to health care, Social Security and other programs,” said Jeremy Pope, professor of political science and a Wheatley Institution Fellow for Constitutional Government at BYU. “We believe, however, that effective policies are possible if a broad-based coalition of moderate Democrats and Republicans come together — rejecting the partisan blind spots — to pass legislation that would benefit many Americans.”