Family & Relationships

Loved ones not only influence your choice of school, car, or housing -- they might influence your choices about smoking, exercise, and food, even if they live hundreds of miles away.

"Sharing household chores" now ranks third in importance on a list of nine items often associated with successful marriages – well ahead of such staples as adequate income, good housing, common interests and shared religious beliefs.

In the span of the past decade, full-time work outside the home has lost some of its appeal to mothers. This trend holds for both those who have such jobs and those who don't.

In many countries around the globe, gay and lesbian couples are seeking the right to marry or enter into other legally recognized forms of domestic partnerships. The legal definition of marriage is in flux, particularly in the developed world.

Americans believe that births to unwed women are a big problem for society, and they take a mixed view at best of cohabitation without marriage.

A broad consensus holds that it is harder to be a father now than it was 20 or 30 years ago. But seven-in-ten adults say it's harder to be a mom today than it was in the past, and only 11% see it as easier.

A new survey also finds that those with homosexual or lesbian relatives or friends are more likely to accept gay marriage and oppose the firing of gay teachers.

In the past four decades, growing numbers of gays have come out of the closet and into the mainstream of American life. As a consequence, 4-in-10 Americans now report that some of their close friends or family members are gays or lesbians. Read full analysis at Pewresearch.org

A new survey also finds that those with homosexual or lesbian relatives or friends are more likely to accept gay marriage and oppose the firing of gay teachers.

Those with close contacts to servicemembers in Iraq or Afghanistan tend to be more supportive of the Iraq war but their differences with those who are not closely connected are relatively modest.