Survey finds the economy worries Americans more than cultural issues

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.