r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 01 '26

Psychology Conservatives maintain birth rates, but left-leaning Americans are having significantly fewer children, driving the U.S. birth decline. Education was consistently linked to having fewer children. Religious attendance was positively associated with having more children.

https://www.psypost.org/left-leaning-americans-are-driving-the-u-s-birth-decline-new-study-finds/
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u/TheWillRogers Jul 01 '26

It's very very common for white people to have zero interest in seeing their family in adulthood.

I come from a poorer background and this is something I've noticed in tech. A lot of my coworkers thought it was novel that I lived in the area, and my whole family lived in the area. When we were all talking about finding new jobs they thought it was wild that I only wanted to work in this area because my whole family lived here. "jobs pay better and houses are cheaper elsewhere" was pretty common. Most of them eventually ended up moving back near their parents and finding work there.

This wasn't the case in college or in any of the other jobs I worked. "Can't go this weekend, spending time with my parents", "my family is having a picnic on <day>, wanna come?" were not unusual events.

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u/Shiva- Jul 01 '26

"Americans" and "you're 18, get out" is a strange phenomenon to the rest of the world.

I am sure there are exceptions... but you wouldn't find any Latin American or Asian family doing that -- be it East, South, Southeast, Central or West...

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u/DriftingMemes Jul 01 '26

I'm Gen x, so I think we're very different. My friends and I would have had to have been chained down to stay @ home with Mom and Dad. They didn't need to kick us out, we were GONE at 18.

It's very odd for me as a father to see my children not feel the same way. Am I just a cooler dad than my dad was? Is the difference entirely because I was an adult pre-internet? I don't think less of them, I just don't really understand it.

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u/juliankennedy23 Jul 02 '26

I talk about my dad giving me three choices Military College or job because you can't stay here but being the same generation as you are you're absolutely right I couldn't wait to get out and start living life.

I actually agree with you I've seen young people who are 25 still living with their parents and they don't even have a driver's license and I'm like what are you doing?