What did Daniel Cox find about parents talking to their kids about marriage?

In focus groups in Philadelphia and Raleigh, North Carolina, Daniel Cox asked young adults which life priorities their parents had talked about. Every hand went up for financial stability and education, in both the men's and women's groups, but none went up for marriage or parenthood. Some women said only their grandparents had raised those topics. Cox puts it down to parents fearing they would sound prescriptive.

• Cox says the best social science shows the quality of relationships matters more than almost any other measure of a good life.
• In a separate survey, most Americans under 50 said their parents viewed them as special, while those over 50 mostly said average.

▸In their words

“When it comes to marriage, none of the hands went up, in either group.” Daniel Cox · at 28:58 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Modern Wisdom (2026-10-22). Read the whole episode summary →

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