Americans are largely pessimistic about the future of the family, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.
When asked about the institution of marriage and the family, 40% of respondents hold a pessimistic view, 29% are neither optimistic nor pessimistic and 26% are optimistic. Most respondents say that notable trends like fewer people getting married, fewer children being raised by two married parents or people waiting until later in life to marry won’t impact the country’s future.
Of those trends, fewer children being raised by two married parents is viewed most negatively, and almost half of respondents believe it will have a negative impact on the country (49%). Eleven percent view the trend positively.
While some family models are more acceptable than others, many Americans accept different kinds of family arrangements: husband and wife raising children together (90%), a husband and wife who choose not to have children (73%), a single parent raising children on their own (60%), a married gay or lesbian couple who choose not to have children (66%), an unmarried couple raising their children together (52%), a married gay or lesbian couple raising their children together (47%), and an unmarried gay or lesbian couple raising children together (41%).
“There’s baseline support for a variety of family arrangements, but the public still favors some types of families over others,” Kim Parker, the Director of Social Trends Research and Rachel Minkin, a research associate, write. “Families that include a married husband and wife raising children are seen as the most acceptable. At the same time, relatively few Americans say marriage and parenthood are central to living a fulfilling life.”
To read the full report, click here.
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Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
