Americans have grown more worried about their pocketbooks and less concerned about the culture wars over the past decade, an annual family values survey has found.
Deseret News reported Thursday that 71% of adults responding to a poll last year flagged “economic challenges” while fewer than half cited hot-button social topics as major issues facing the nation.
That reflects a gradual flip-flop in 10 questionnaires dating back to 2015. That year, roughly 51% of respondents mentioned the economy and 70% cited cultural changes such as declining religious faith and increased sexual permissiveness.
The economy “has become an even more pressing issue for families” over time, “far surpassing their cultural concerns,” said political scientist Christopher F. Karpowitz, the survey’s co-investigator.
“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% of Americans cite as a major concern,” said Mr. Karpowitz, a research director at Brigham Young University.
The top cultural concerns survey respondents flagged were a lack of government programs to support families (50%), parents not teaching or disciplining their children enough (40%) and the costs of raising a family (30%).
Pollsters noted that sharp divisions between self-identified Republicans and Democrats on key issues could limit bipartisan solutions.
Among the adults surveyed, 40% supported a legal ban on sex-change hormone therapy for underaged children, 36% opposed it and one-quarter were unsure. Nearly 6 in 10 Republicans supported a ban, compared to just 23% of Democrats.
Another 46% of surveyed adults supported banning social media for people under the age of 16, with 31% opposed and 23% not sure. Politically, 53% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats endorsed this idea.
Participants were similarly split on abortion, with more Democrats (49%) than Republicans (20%) favoring the freedom to travel out of state to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
Although both sides agreed on the financial benefits of wedlock, 67% of Republicans supported government spending encouraging marriage, compared with just 34% of Democrats.
Nearly 8 in 10 Republicans and 4 in 10 Democrats considered marriage a necessity for strong families. Non-religious Democrats were also more likely than churchgoers of either party to support a social safety net for unmarried parents.
“While precious 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,” a summary of the findings concluded. “Republicans are also more likely to report being currently married than are Democrats, regardless of age.”
YouGov conducted the nationally representative poll of 3,000 adults online on Aug. 22-29 for Deseret and BYU’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Deseret News, one of Utah’s oldest newspapers, is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Of course Amwricans are concerned about the economy. Our hard-earned dollars are being spent to assist illegals aliens while enriching the various Catholic Charities.
And the same people are more interested in Super Bowl Sunday than Easter Sunday. They are also more likely to change their religion than their political affiliation.
New Task Force to Eradicate anti-Christian Bias EO signed by DT!
President Trump announces that he is signing an Executive Order to make Attorney General Pam Bondi the head of a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias.
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1887515069329637487
most of these dollars are not earned they’re borrowed
Survey Results, then and now:
Gen. 19:1-28 in Sodom and Gomorrah: “Brimstone, what brimstone?”
722 B.C. in Israel: “Assyrians, what Assyrians?”
587 B.C. in Judea: “Babylonians, what Babylonians?”
410 A.D. in Rome: “Visigoths, what Visigoths?
1348 A.D. in England: Bubonic plague, what Bubonic plague”?
1861 A.D. opposite Ft. Sumter: “Slavery, what slavery?”
1912 A.D. on the Titanic: “Iceberg, what iceberg?”
1914 A.D. in Europe: “Archduke Ferdinand, what Archduke Ferdinand?”
1942 A.D. in Fantasyland: “Incinerators, what incinerators?”
1973 A.D. in U.S.: “‘Silent scream,’ what ‘silent scream’?”
2019 A.D. anywhere: “Wuhan flu, what Wuhan flu?”
Whenever, Alfred E. Newman: “Worry, what me worry?”
2025 A.D. in the U.S.: “Cultural issues, what cultural issues?”
Good one. Laughter is better than my having to pop another blood pressure pill. Along with cultural decay are denial processes of cultural decay.
I wonder how they feel about Trump obssessing about Greenland, Gaza and making Canada the 51st state. When he ran he hit all the right notes. Not so sure now. Though I’m glad he pushed back on transgenderism.
It’s not such a bad thing to continuously provoke the world view of elitists.
Exactly, Edward Baker. We’re seeing how easy it is to yank the chain of leftists – including the CINOs that frequent these pages. They get so easily hysterical.
How Christian you are.
I can understand the concern with the economy rather than social issues. I’m a retired widow and I’m blessed that my late husband and I contributed to our workplace retirement accounts and had an IRA. I also was able to pay off all my debts with my late husband’s workplace life insurance policy. And my husband’s simple funeral expenses (around $7500) were replaced by FEMA (my husband died of COVID-19). I have a brother near my age, and he is also retired and living quite well after working for over 40 years and investing in real estate, metals, IRA, etc. If either of us need any help, we’re there for each other. I’m very blessed.
But I am far from rich. I live by a budget, and if the economy is not stable or if I have an unexpected expense, I end up taking money from one budget item to pay the bill for another budget item. Groceries have really become expensive–when a pound of hamburger costs $12 or more, I choose something cheaper. I don’t buy clothing unless I absolutely have to, which I generally don’t. And I don’t “shop” as recreation, other than at the church Christmas bazaars!
Thank goodness I have read and re-read Doris Jantzen Longacre’s classic book, “Living More With Less” many times. This book came out of the “simple lifestyle movement” that spread in the U.S. during my first few years of marriage (early 1980s), and I have lived by its teachings for most of my adult life! It’s a Godsend and I highly recommend this book to Christians and non-Christian, along with her cookbook of “simple lifestyle recipes”, most of which don’t use meat but are really delicious.
I think one of the biggest issues concerning the economy is the lack of workers in the U.S. Many hospitals are frighteningly short-staffed, as are many factories when it comes to the skilled trades (welders, HVAC, mechanics, etc.), and this means that they are being paid very high wages to keep them on-the-job. And many restaurants, including the fast foods, are paying very high wages to keep their few workers, and those workers are often paying all their expenses out of that relatively small paycheck.
I attribute this worker shortage to the declining population, which can be explained by the legalization and “normalizing” of abortion as a “right” resulting in a high rate of abortions in the U.S. We are getting the just desserts of our “freedom to choose”–not enough young, healthy, strong people to do all the work that needs to be done in the U.S., and it will get even worse as the last decades of Baby Boomers retire and begins spending their savings and other cash sources and inevitably growing old and in need of care–who will replace them in the hospitals, schools, factories, military, and all the other workplaces?!
I think that legal immigrants will be able to work in all of the fields that are so short-staffed–and this means encouraging legal immigration and helping immigrants to become U.S. citizens!! And of course, I pray that women will begin to reject abortion options and choose to bear their children who will eventually begin replacing the Boomers and Millennials in the workplaces.
“Cultural issues” are vastly larger and deeper than your first-line substitution (?) of “social issues” such as your references the the price of fast foods or the related economics of immigration policy (important and personal as these also are).
Culture ultimately has to do with non-negotiable and non-quantifiable human morality, and even whether the very existence of human lives or of the entire universe, or even of a God other than ourselves has any meaning at all. Such historic and “cultural issues” have been politicized and commodified for too long–and half the surveyed public remains clueless.
Mrs. Sharon: well said. Furthermore, I cannot think of anyone I know who is against LEGAL IMMIGRATION.
As if to say, in America today, money talks, morals and noble pursuit walks. Although we’re at a crossroads with a new administration. Bravado alone won’t get us where we must go absent of a renewed faith in Christ.
MAGA may be read as Make America Godly Again. To the leftist chant of “No justice, no peace” we should respond “Know Jesus, Know Peace” and perhaps rather than promoting a “Moral Society” we should promote a “Virtuous Society”. To be virtuous one only pay heed to the whisper of the Holy Spirit that suggests what we ought to do and what we ought not to do”.
Yes.
Yes, and I wonder why the workings of Holy Spirit is not known to many.
I would suggest that the workings of the Holy Spirit have influenced each person in humanity since the beginning, simply ingeniously covert thought not obtrusive but merely suggestive respecting the dignity of the individual to chose between virtue and vice. The ancient Stoics contended that the virtuous life was the good life doing what they ought to do and not doing what they ought not to do (responding to the Holy Spirit). There are virtuous men with each and every denomination and religion including atheism the primary distinction being the extent to which they know to express their gratitude to a Higher Authority or simply pat themselves on their own back.
Count me as one of the minority who is more concerned about social issues than the economy. Thankfully I have enough funds to pay my bills. But that does not mean I am happy with the prices I am forced to pay. It just means I think the cultural issues are more important. I do not support the normalization of drag queens, trans surgery for children, or reverse racism. I do not support DEI which places unqualified people of ANY kind into roles they cannot manage, especially those having to do with things like air travel or medicine in which people’s lives are on the line. I do not support open borders nor DA’s in blue states that turn a blind eye to violent criminals who should be prosecuted but are instead released to offend again. Concern about the price of eggs and other commodities our lives pales in comparison. Politicized Cultural issues such as the ones we have experienced the last four years under the leftist Biden regime could literally result in your death, or the death of someone you love. Try a little harder to figure out whats important.
After I read through tbe linked report of survey results, I thought the questions about family life and challenges, including numerous economic and interpersonal concerns, were quite good and detailed, whereas the questions about ‘cultural issues” were fewer in number and more general. Perhaps when the survey started ten years ago, asking about “sexual permissiveness in our society” seemed on the mark, whereas now, with the explosion of “gender identity” issues and preoccupations in recent years, we have moved beyond simply-stated issues like “is there too much sexual permissiveness?”.
I appreciate that the survey breaks down the “most important challenges” questions into separate responses for “Your Family” versus “Families [in general]” because those are two different perspectives. The respondents were likely to see other families as having fewer problems finding quality family time, experiencing tension or disagreement, and experiencing mental or physical health struggles. Otherwise, they tended to see other families as having more problems than their own family.
This article comes off to me as a mishmash of surveys covering different topics. For one I am suspicious of surveys in general due to the fact that I question the validity of sampling, how the questions were written to obtain a response etc. So the responses are frequently questionable.
On economic issues there is plenty to be concerned about. On a micro level, just the price of a simple thing as eggs makes one wonder what is going on. Inflation is eating away at the average family’s budget, so it is no big surprise the economy is a concern. If one thinks at a macro level, one has to wonder about the deficit that is growing out of control and causing the interest on the debt to over whelm the economy. If one is going into retirement one has to wonder about the viability of Social Security, etc. Another reason for the economy to be of concern.
At a spiritual/macro level as a Catholic I am continue to be perplexed by the actions of the Church leadership. I am asking for God to please bring us another John Paul 2 to bring back some sanity. At a micro Church parish level, I wonder how can a Catholic Church – Parish with couple thousand or so parishioners have only a dozen or so members show up for a weekly 1 hr Eucharistic Devotion service.
But these type of issues have been with the country and Church forever. One has to hope and pray (including saying the Rosary) that God is watching over us.
??? You say you are concerned about social issues but then go on to dislike cultural issues under Biden. Many are identical. Economy is important yes. We need food, shelter, safety (Makes me think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs). Without those needs being met, I think people get blind to the reason for helping others.