Source: Washington Wire | Date: April 12, 2013
Ask
Americans at the end of the 1990s about their worry list, and child-rearing
ranked at the top. More than a decade later,
with the scars of a recession still fresh, economic woes have shot up
and now top the list, while other worries have receded.
In the new
poll, more than two-thirds of Americans
(68%) cited pressure to make ends meet as a “very serious” problem facing
families. That was up from 50% the last time the question was posed in 1999 and
made it the single biggest concern of any considered by poll participants. It was the only such problem that people
perceived to have worsened over time. The scars of a recession still fresh,
everything else diminished in significance. Divorce and violence on TV dropped
in importance, to the point where fewer than half of respondents listed either
as a very serious problem.
The
sharpest swing in opinion came on the issue of parents not paying enough
attention to their children’s lives. Some 64% of people said that was a very
serious problem, a steep drop from 83% more than a decade ago, when it was the
top concern. The high rate of divorce
and the breakup of families had declined as a major concern, with 48% calling
the trend a very serious problem, down from 63% in 1999. Peer pressure on
children to use drugs also dropped as a perceived worry, cited by 58% of
respondents as a very serious problem, down 10 percentage points from more than
a decade earlier.
The poll of 1,000 adults,
conducted April 5-8, also offered a snapshot of opinions about technologies
that either didn’t exist or were too new to be on the worry radar in 1999. Some
62% of people said that the bullying of children on the Internet or through
social media was a very serious problem. Almost half applied the “very serious
problem” label to young people failing to develop good social skills because of
widespread use of texting and other electronic media.
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