2026
Higher-Income Americans are More Resistant to AI Romance
Poor and working-class Americans are less likely to marry than their peers with higher incomes and college degrees, and this class divide may be widening in the age of AI. According to a 2024 Institute for Family Studies survey of young adults ages 18 to 39, most single young adults are opposed to or uncomfortable with the idea of an AI romantic partner. But singles with lower income and education show less resistance. About six-in-10 single young adults with incomes under $40,000 say no to an AI partner, compared with 80% of those earning more than $100,000 per year.
Married Women Are Increasingly Happiest
In the face of endless verbal battery against America’s oldest institution, new IFS research analyzing the General Social Survey (GSS) finds that the happiness premium for married women compared to unmarried women is not only large, but growing among prime-aged women. In 2024, the gap between married and unmarried women without children stood at a shocking 27-percentage points. A somewhat steady happiness trend through the 1990s and 2000s has since plummeted for unmarried childless women amidst the digital revolution of the last 15 years. Lacking the social, emotional, and economic protection that marriage provides, unmarried women, especially on the Left, have been uniquely victimized by the modern digital age.
Bipartisan support for tech company accountability
Multiple tech giants are being sued in a bellwether trial in Los Angeles this week, which will determine whether they are legally responsible for harming children. The defendants argue that their platforms are exempt from legal liability. But what do Americans think? It turns out that Americans overwhelmingly support legal accountability for tech companies. A survey conducted by the Institute for Family Studies found that 90% of Americans agree that AI companies should be open to legal action if their products contribute to harms such as suicide, sexual exploitation, psychosis, or addiction among children. Such attitudes are bipartisan, with 87% of Trump voters and 95% of Harris voters agreeing that families should have the right to sue AI companies.
Girls are increasingly pessimistic about marriage
Girls were once more marriage minded than boys. For decades, research showed that girls held higher expectations of getting married than their male peers. Between 1976 and 2010, 83% of 12th grade girls said they expected to marry one day, compared to 76% of boys. But in 2010, the trend began to shift as girls became increasingly pessimistic about marriage. In the years following the global pandemic, girls were for the first time less likely than boys to say they expected to get married, with only 67% of 12th grade girls saying they expected to marry versus 72% of boys.
Removing Family Discrimination Increases CDCTC Benefits
Although the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) substantially increased the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC), IFS has identified two major ways in which the CDCTC continues to discriminate against many families in need. First, benefits are capped at the second child, leaving no additional benefits to larger families. Second, it excludes single-income married families. In 2019, 65% of US families fell into one or both of these categories, leaving them with insufficient support or none at all. Eliminating single-earner and third child discrimination from the CDCTC would both significantly expand the average benefit for families and minimize the share of families missing out on the benefit.
Despite Grade Inflation, Children From Married Families Do Better
Has grading leniency in primary and secondary schools across the US leveled the playing field for students of different family backgrounds? This was one aspiration of the remarkable grade inflation observed in the last quarter of a century. But rather than resolve the discrepancy, grade inflation from 1996 to 2019 has brought with it an even greater gap between children from married-intact families and children from unmarried and non-intact families, growing from 9% to 13%. Needless to say, family stability still matters – arguably more than ever – for children’s success in school.
Unmarried Mothers Receive The Most Welfare
Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform, the PRWORA, turns 30 this year, and a recent IFS report on working women shows the significant – but short-lived – effects it had on overall welfare use among mothers of young children. A considerable decrease in the late 1990s has been followed by far greater increases for married and unmarried mothers alike, though the share of unmarried mothers receiving welfare remains strikingly higher. In 2025, over two-thirds of unmarried mothers with children under 5 received welfare benefits. This rise is a possible explanation for the surprising downward trend in full-time employment for unmarried mothers since 2000, which contrasts a consistent upward trend for married mothers.
Monetary Incentives Increase Fertility
Do cash-for-kids policies actually work? In a 2025 IFS research brief, a review of the literature showed a positive relationship between policy generosity and estimated effect on birth rates. Generally, a benefit increase worth 4% of GDP per capita per child is associated with a 1% increase in birth probabilities. It’s not only these academic studies that demonstrate the effectivity of cash incentives. Looking at 17 countries who recently implemented major cash-based pronatal policies, we found more evidence that cash-for-kids does indeed work. On average, the policies increased fiscal transfers to families by about 0.7% of GDP and increased fertility rates by about 9%.
2025
Job Quality Is Driving The Class Difference In Married Family Rates
Working class men used to be more likely than college educated men to be married with children. But in the late 1980s this trend flipped, with the share of working class men in married families dropping a staggering 25% over the next 40 years, compared to an 11% decrease for college educated men. What’s the driving force behind this difference? It turns out that the quality of a man’s job plays a significant role. In fact, a good wage, job stability, and access to benefits explained nearly 80% of the class difference in married family formation rates: After controlling for these variables the adjusted difference was only 1.78% between college educated and working class men.
Many Married Mothers Work More Than They'd Like
Do ideal work arrangements reflect reality? For many married mothers with young children in the home, the answer is unfortunately no. This is especially the case for liberal married mothers with young children, with 73% currently working full time and only 46% thinking this arrangement is ideal, according to a 2025 IFS/Wheatley survey. Many married mothers have a great desire for part time work, with around 40% in each ideological group saying it would be the ideal arrangement, per IFS research. However, only about half of the conservative and moderate part time dreamers (20% and 19%, respectively), and less than a quarter of liberals (10%), are able to make their preferred part time work arrangement a reality.
