Americans who come from two-parent families and who belong to churches or other places of faith report that they have more people to rely on for help and support during times of crisis.
The finding comes from the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) 2024 American Social Capital Survey, which focused on Americans’ social life. The survey examined the increasing isolation of Americans over the past half-century, observing that Americans “participate in organized activities less often and join fewer community groups than they once did.”
The results of the survey were published August 22 at AEI’s Survey Center on American Life.
Young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 – and particularly young men – are most likely to rely on their parents for personal support, the survey found. Among all young adults in this age bracket, 42% report they would first seek their parents’ help to manage a personal problem. When gender is a factor, however, nearly half (46%) of young men would seek their parents’ assistance, compared to 37% of young women.
Young men (7%) are also almost twice as likely as young women (4%) to report having no one to rely on for support. Daniel A. Cox and Sam Pressler note in the survey report:
Young men’s close reliance on their parents for personal support is partly because of their living situation. Young men are significantly more likely than young women to live at home with their parents, which may build trust and strengthen their bonds. Fifty-six percent of young men report living at home with their parents, compared to less than half (44 percent) of young women.
These findings may seem surprising considering that many more Americans are growing up in single-parent households. Cox and Pressler say that, “despite this shift in family structure, younger Americans are not any less likely to report that they could turn to both parents when experiencing a personal problem during their formative years.”
The authors suggest what accounts for this shift in young adults seeking out either parent for help is that fathers in two-parent households provide more caregiving than they did in previous decades.
“A majority (57 percent) of young adults report that when they experienced a personal struggle growing up, they could turn to either parent for help,” the data show:
Older Americans raised in two-parent households are far less likely to say they could come to either parent with a problem. Only about four in 10 (41 percent) seniors raised in two-parent homes say they could rely on both their father and mother for support during their childhood.
Fathers, the authors wrote, “are more involved in their children’s lives and provide more emotional support than they once did,” and “Americans raised in two-parent households today are more likely to be supported by their father than they were in the past.”
Among young adults raised in two-parent households, 60% report they could turn to their father with a personal problem. In contrast, 45% of seniors raised in two-parent households say the same, according to the survey data.
“So even though fewer American children today grow up with present fathers, those who do are more connected to them,” the authors concluded:
Greater parental support is associated with better social outcomes later in life. Americans who report they could turn to either parent for support are more likely to have robust social connections. Those who grew up in two-parent households with both parents’ support are more likely to have established close friendships in adulthood than those who could turn to only one parent or who could rely on neither parent. Half (50 percent) of Americans who could lean on either parent for personal support growing up say they have at least five close friends. Significantly smaller shares of Americans who could turn to only one or neither parent for help with a personal problem report having at least five close friends today (40 percent and 37 percent, respectively).
Americans who belong to a church or other place of worship are also more likely to feel connected to others and have more people to rely on for help and support, the survey found.
College-educated individuals can more easily manage a social support system via greater access to commercial and public venues, but less formally educated Americans especially benefit from belonging to a church or other faith group where they can develop relationships with others they see regularly and count on them for help and support.
The survey report explained:
Religious organizations are the only group that more than 10 percent of Americans with high school degrees or less education join (27 percent). Indeed, Americans with a high school degree or less are at least three times more likely to belong to a religious group than to join any other type of group. Yet their college-educated peers are significantly more likely to be members of religious congregations (39 percent).
Among Americans without a college education, religiously affiliated individuals are more likely than the nonaffiliated to have several people who can take them to a doctor’s appointment (63%-49%), give them a lift (67%-55%), loan them $200 (53%-42%), offer them a place to stay (59%-46%), or help them move (68%-54%).
As the survey report noted, being a member of a parish or other faith group comes with social benefits regardless of education level.
While 27% of Americans with a high school degree or less who are not affiliated with a place of worship report having no close friends, 11% of religiously unaffiliated college graduates say the same. But, among those who are church members, only 15% of those with a high school degree or less report having no close friendships, and 7% of religiously affiliated college graduates say the same.
The shift toward greater isolation among Americans has been a subject of recent interest in the news. On Tuesday, for example, ABC News observed that “a growing number of restaurant customers are choosing to eat alone.”
Single-person reservations at American restaurants have risen 29% over the past two years, reports reservation platform OpenTable, according to the news report.
And the solo trend is happening worldwide, with single reservations up in Germany 18%, 14% in the United Kingdom, and 5% in Japan – where now 29% of diners eat out alone.
While OpenTable CEO Debby Soo speculated that more diners who work from home are likely eating out alone to escape their home offices, she believes the deeper issue is “a broader movement of self-love and self-care” and “enjoying your own company.”
However, Anna Mattila, a professor of lodging management at Penn State University, has studied the solo dining phenomenon and come to a different conclusion. Noting the impact of technology, Mattila said solo diners don’t really feel alone when they have their smartphones with them to help them feel connected.
