Survey Finds Traditional Views On Family

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Survey Finds Traditional Views On Family

Special Report - August 15, 2012
A majority of 18 to 29 year-olds in a national survey express traditional views about marriage, sex, and family. The latest findings from the Clark University Poll of Emerging Adults, an ongoing research project headed by Clark Psychology Professor Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Ph.D., were released on August 9. The Clark University Poll surveyed 1,029 emerging adults (a term coined by Dr. Arnett to include young people between the ages of 18 and 29) in April 2012. According to the poll’s key findings, the majority of emerging adults want to have a marriage that lasts a lifetime, believe that casual sex is wrong and that marriage should come before having children, and expect to one day put their family ahead of their careers.

More specifically, the Clark University Poll found that:

86 percent of those surveyed “expect to have a marriage that lasts a lifetime.”
57 percent believe it is “not okay for two people to have sex if they are not emotionally involved with each other.”
73 percent believe “couples should be married before having a child.”
61 percent “expect they will have to give up some of their career goals in order to have the family life they want.” The poll notes that young men in the survey were as likely as young women to say this.

“It’s striking to see how optimistic today’s emerging adults are about their prospects for having a life-long marriage. They grow up knowing that half of marriages end in divorce, yet nearly all of them expect to be in the half that doesn’t,” said Dr. Arnett in a Clark University press release announcing the poll’s findings. “Of today’s emerging adults, the ones with divorced parents are often the ones who are most determined to avoid divorce, even though they are statistically most likely to get divorced themselves.”

Related resources:
Duration of First Marriages Examined - March 26, 2012
Unwed Births Increase in U.S. - December 19, 2011
Report Examines Marriage and Parenthood - December 12, 2011
Belonging and Rejection Report - November 21, 2011
Attitudes On Sex And Marriage - November 23, 2010
Census Report Examines Cohabitation - November 9, 2010
Study Shows College Marriage Gap - October 22, 2010
Most Children Live With Parents - July 27, 2010
Characteristics of Cohabiting Adults Studied - July 16, 2009
The Benefits of Marriage - FNC - Nov/Dec, 2008
Married and Healthy - FNC - Nov/Dec, 2008
Report Analyzes Cohabitation Effects - June 23, 2008
Landmark Study Estimates Costs of Family Fragmentation - April 16, 2008
Traditional Family Still the Majority - February 27, 2008
How Cohabitation Undermines Marriage and the Family - Findings - June 2005