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Identities, Opportunities and Challenges
• First conducted in 2015
• 3,000 adults whose characteristics mirror those of the general population
• Fielded online by YouGov
• Core of questions about the health of American families
• Modules about specific issues and trends differ each year
MarriagePeople remain optimistic
about their own marriages, but less so
about marriages generally.
8 6 7 6
4442 42
40
46
50 4952
40 3937 37
4042 41 41
8 7 8 6
Your Marriage Marriages Generally
2015 2016 2017 2018 2015 2016 2017 2018
0
25
50
75
100
Year
Percentage Status
WeakerAbout the SameStronger
Evaluations of Marriage
Marriage and Trump
IdentityPolitical scientists obsess
over identity, typically partisan identities, but
what we find is that family relationships are
the more important identities.
70 71
43
29 28
37
30
0
25
50
75
100
Spouse Parent Religion Race Political Party Career or Job Community
Perc
enta
ge S
ayin
g `E
xtre
mel
y' o
r 'V
ery'
Impo
rtan
t
Identity Commitment
Identity and Race
4546
37
52
61
42
18
46
9
0
25
50
75
100
Spouse Identity Parent Identity Race Identity
Perc
enta
ge S
ayin
g `E
xtre
mel
y Im
port
ant'
RespondentWhiteBlackHispanic
Spouse and Parent Identity by Race
Most Important Issues by
PartyDemocrats focus on
economic issues, while Republicans prioritize
culture. Both emphasize the need for increased discipline of children.
35
59
78
72
49
39
90
82
68
0
25
50
75
100
Economics Culture Family Structure
Type of Issue
Perc
enta
ge PartisanshipDemocratsIndependentsRepublicans
Vote Choice and the Most Important Issues Facing Families
Economic Stresses
Among those without children, the cost of
raising a child was the most frequently cited
factor in decisions about whether to have
children.
2017 Modules
• Relationship Sequence
• Teens and Technology
• Sexual Harassment and Consent
• Immigration
• Policy / Taxes?
Relationship Sequence
Differences between actual and ideal, on
average 2.111.74
2.122.33
2.152.51
3.753.37
Sex
Cohabit
Marriage
Child
1 2 3 4Mean Order
Rel
atio
nshi
p M
ilest
ones
aa
ActualIdeal
Relationship Sequence
Relationship Sequence
Black Democrats are more similar to
Republicans than to white Democrats in their
ideal relationship sequences
2.261.82
2.252.35
1.792.36
3.793.46
1.721.43
2.052.22
2.532.68
3.823.53
2.421.74
2.112.47
1.912.47
3.733.07
Republicans White Democrats Black Democrats
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Sex
Cohabit
Marriage
Child
Mean Order
Rel
atio
nshi
p M
ilest
ones
a aActual Ideal
Relationship Sequence by Party and Race
Teens and Technology
Parents’ views of the most important issues
facing teens
American Family Survey Summary Report: Identities, Opportunities, and Challenges 36
respondent could choose up to four issues. Table 16 presents the results. The most common concern fromthese parents was overuse of technology, which was the only option chosen by a majority of respondents.In addition, 45 percent of respondents identified bullying as an important issue, and approximately one-third of respondents chose mental health issues, family breakdown and divorce, or pressure to use drugsor alcohol. All other items on the list were chosen by less than a quarter of respondents.
Table 16 also shows that mothers and fathers largely agreed on these priorities. The only major differenceswere that mothers reported substantially more concern about bullying than fathers, but fathers expressedmore concern than mothers about teens facing family breakdown and divorce.
Table 16: Most Important Issues Facing Teens
Overall Fathers Mothers
Overuse of technology 53 55 51Bullying 45 38 51Mental health issues 36 34 37Family breakdown/divorce 35 43 29Pressure to use drugs or alcohol 34 35 33Poor quality schools 23 21 24Making decisions about sexual activity 20 20 20Difficult relationships with family members 15 15 15Dating and relationships 14 15 14Pressure to get good grades 14 14 14Widespread availability of pornography 12 14 11Safety in their communities 11 9 13Not enough meaningful work opportunities 10 12 9Navigating sexual identity 10 11 9Sexual abuse 9 8 10Other 2 2 2
Larger differences can be found between Republicans and Democrats, however. These differing assess-ments can be seen in Figure 17, where red bars indicate the percentage of Republicans choosing the issue,blue bars indicate Democrats, and purple bars show results for independents who do not lean towardeither party. While overuse of technology was an important concern for respondents of both parties,Republicans expressed comparatively more concern about the issue (64 percent) than Democrats (48 per-cent). In addition, concern about the effects of divorce and family breakdown on teenagers was heavilyconcentrated among Republicans (54 percent), but of far less concern to both independents (33 percent)and Democrats (17 percent). Republicans were also somewhat more likely than Democrats to expressconcern about teens’ decisions about sexual activity (23 percent vs. 15 percent) and the availability ofpornography (17 percent vs. 10 percent).
Conversely, Democrats expressed more concern than Republicans about bullying (48 percent vs. 38 per-cent), mental health issues (44 percent vs. 30 percent), community safety for teenagers (15 percent vs. 9percent), and work opportunities (14 percent vs. 7 percent). On other issues, such as pressure to use drugsor alcohol, dating and relationships, navigating sexual identity, pressure to get good grades, relationshipswith family members, and the quality of schools, we see rough agreement (defined here as partisan differ-ences that are about five percentage points or less) between partisans. Notably, given that the survey wasadministered prior to the Kavanaugh hearings, the difference between partisans in concern about sexualabuse among teenagers was small (11 percent of Democrats, compared to nine percent of Republicans).
Other demographic characteristics also mattered, especially in patterns of concern about overuse of tech-
Technology Use
Parents estimate their teen sons spend 24 hours/week on video games and their teen daughters spend 24 hours/week on social
media
Sexual Harassment • 43 percent of all respondents have experienced something inappropriate.
• 28 percent of men
• 58 percent of women
• 23 percent at work
• 15 percent from an authority figure at school or work
• More often from college educated
Sexual Harassment
People do distinguish between different
activities, but women have more stringent
standards than do men as to what counts.
77
62
71
49
66
40
27
20
29
17
11
8
9
5
5
3
Persisting in Unwanted Attention
Asking for Sexual Favors
Looking at Private Parts
Placing a Hand on Back
Sexual Jokes
Commenting on Appearance
Asking to Go for a Drink
Asking to Go for Lunch
0 25 50 75 100Percentage Responding the Activity `Always' counts as Harassment
GenderMaleFemale
Attitudes about Sexual Harassment
An ExperimentPeople are more concerned about behavior that men
commit towards women than they are about the
reverse.
57
67
39
59
33
47
7678
66
76
61
70
Male Female
Persisting inUnwanted Attention
Asking forSexual Favors
Looking atPrivate Parts
Persisting inUnwanted Attention
Asking forSexual Favors
Looking atPrivate Parts
0
25
50
75
100
`Alw
ays'
coun
ts a
s H
aras
smen
t
TreatmentMan to WomanWoman to Man
Consistency in Attitudes about Sexual Harassment
Consent: Verbal and Non-Verbal
Women are more likely to believe that consent
must be “verbal” though all groups favor the idea of some form of consent
for the most serious forms of contact.
73
61
18
27
63
50
27
37
Having Sex Intimate Touching
Yes, Must Be Verbal Yes, but Could Be Non-verbal Yes, Must Be Verbal Yes, but Could Be Non-verbal
0
25
50
75
100
Percentage Gender
MaleFemale
Consent and Gender Differences
Immigration Policy and
FamilyThe Groups Everyone
wants to Admit: Children, Spouses,
Parents
Controversial Groups: Extended Family
69
84
63
79
50
78
30
66
26
62
12
44
12
45
12
42
0
25
50
75
100
Child Spouse Parent Sibling Grandparent Aunt/Uncle Niece/Nephew Cousin
Family Member
Perc
enta
ge F
avor
ing
PIDDemocratRepublican
Family Immigration Support
Asylum Requests and
Family SeparationOnly 1 in 10 want
separated families and children in detention
facilities. There is more controversy over how intact families should
report for asylum hearings.
11
6
37
46
Separated: Children in a Detention Facility
Separated: Children with Relatives or Foster Care
Together: Held in a Detention Facility
Together: in the Country
0 25 50 75 100
Preferred Immigration Policy on Family Separation
TaxesPeople of all stripes tend not to believe that recent tax cuts would help their family. Only 30 percent of women believed this.
American Family Survey Summary Report: Identities, Opportunities, and Challenges 61
7.4 Family Experience and Tax Cuts
How do people feel about the recently passed tax cut bill? On this survey we asked how people felt thatthe bill affected various groups, described in Table 26. There was a predictable partisan split on the taxbill, with Republicans favoring it much more often than Democrats. Nonetheless, strong majorities of therespondents believe that the tax bill will help large corporations and wealthy individuals. The sample waseffectively split down the middle on whether it would help small businesses. Only a minority believedthat the bill would help middle- and lower-income persons. The most striking feature is that by the groupleast likely believed to get any benefit out of the tax bill is the respondent’s own family.
Table 26: Beliefs about whom the recent tax cut would “help”
Groups Overall Average
Large Corporations 68Wealthy Individuals 63Small Businesses 49Middle-Income Individuals 43Low-Income Individuals 37Your Family 35
We investigated the degree to which these attitudes varied across the key sub-populations examined in theAmerican Family Survey. While it is true that higher income individuals were more favorably disposedtoward the tax cut, we generally found only muted variation by group. Figure 37 breaks down support bykey sub-groups: gender, marital status, and whether or not a respondent had children. The clear pattern isthat the object of help was the dominant consideration for most respondents. While it is true that womentended to think that the tax cuts would help less across the board, all demographic groups we investigatedfollowed the same basic pattern of believing that various types of business would be helped by the law,as would wealthy citizens. People are simply more skeptical that the policy will help out other groups insociety.
PolicyWe underestimate how much family matters for
policies—especially local policies.
21
27
42
34
3942
59
54
0
25
50
75
100
Democrat Republican
StatusSingleWithout KidsMarriedWith Kids
Percentage Choosing Roads over Schools
Discussion• Everybody remains happy with their own families, but express concern about the
state of the American family. The growing worry for people is economic instability.
• Family identity matters a lot.
• Norms about the proper sequence of relationship milestones differ by both party and race.
• Women experience sexual harassment much more often and, perhaps consequently, have more stringent standards for conduct between the sexes, although everyone is more concerned about men’s behavior toward women.
• Continued attention to public opinion about the family and family policy is our goal.