Poll Finds Young Men and Women Have Traditional Views of Marriage and Family Life

A new poll by researchers at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, has found that college-age young adults have traditional beliefs about marriage and family life. The results showed that 86 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said they expected to have a marriage that will last a lifetime.

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, a professor of psychology at Clark University who led the study, stated, “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 but nearly all of them expect to be in the half that doesn’t.”

The study also found a clear majority of young adults who believed that causal sex with a partner with whom they are not emotionally attached is wrong. Nearly, three-quarters of young adults said a couple should be married before they have children.

More than 60 percent of young men and young women said they would give up some career goals in order to have a better family life. There was no gender difference in the percentage of young men and women willing to sacrifice some career goals so they would have a better family life.