The Institute for Family Studies

Today, the realization of the Arizona Dream depends, in no small part, on strong families. In a new report with the @azpolicy released today, we highlight just how much strong families matter to the fortunes of those seeking the Arizona Dream and what public policy can do to strengthen marriage and family life across the state Read more here: ifstudies.org/blog/new-repor…

Read more: ifstudies.org/blog/wine-moms…

A present, attuned mother is not a luxury for a child; she is a developmental necessity, says @EricaKomisarCSW A mother who is held by her partner, her community, and her society is a mother who can hold others. We have simply forgotten to hold the mothers. That is where the conversation should begin, and from there work outward.

The mother “present in body but absent in attention” was very often a mother with no choice—sent back to work too soon, with no leave, no village, and no partner who counted her caregiving as real. Read more: ifstudies.org/blog/wine-moms…

Secure attachment is not a soft sentiment. It is biology, @EricaKomisarCSW points out. An infant’s nervous system is literally built into relationships to an attuned adult. This is not an ideology; it is developmental science. But that science comes with a condition. Attachment requires time, proximity, and a present adult who is not herself running on empty, and you cannot will those into being a culture engineered to make all three scarce.

This is not a debate about working mothers versus stay-at-home mothers, or liberal mothers versus conservative ones. It is about centering the child in the years when the child is most vulnerable and building a society that makes that possible rather than impossible. Read more: ifstudies.org/blog/wine-moms…

Mothers are not careless or indulgent by design. Most are carrying the most isolating version of early motherhood we have ever arranged. Some are alone in a home all day without a village, without enough sleep, help, or leave, writes @EricaKomisarCSW Many face the opposite, and it is no gentler: pushed back into work before they or their babies are ready, asked to labor as though they are not mothers and as though they do not work.

Interviews with 30 working class men without a college degree showed a pattern: family ties are often the only ties they have. Many of these men had no close friends, no community, no mentors, and no sense of purpose beyond supporting their families. Read more @FamStudies: ifstudies.org/blog/family-an…

But family can again become the relational anchor for working-class men, not the last thread in the relational safety net. The answer is to embrace this generational project, not cower in the face of its bigness. Read more: ifstudies.org/blog/family-an…

A flourishing future for working-class men is one where work, family, and community all mutually reinforce one another, not compete with each other for time and resources. The disintegration of a stable, connected working-class life in America has been several generations in the making. It will take several generations to build it back, and the form it takes will, by necessity, look much different than it did in the mid-20th century.

Interviews with 30 working class men (no college degree) show a stark pattern: family ties are often the only ties they have. No close friends, no mentors, no community. And when those family ties break (e.g., the passing of a parent or grandparent), many find themselves alone with nobody to call. Sam Pressler for @FamStudies: ifstudies.org/blog/family-an…

Love to see @lymanstoneky in print

For these men, there was nothing better than becoming a dad. Where men felt any sense of purpose, it was almost always related to providing and caring for their children. Read more: ifstudies.org/blog/family-an…

Family is often described as the anchor or foundation of a robust relational life. It’s seen as the one association we inherit that can embed us in many other overlapping webs of association we participate in throughout life. But this wasn’t the case for the working-class men we interviewed, writes Sam Pressler. For them, it was family, and nothing else.

Family was everything for most of the men we spoke to. Whether their primary familial role was father, uncle, spouse, or brother, supporting their families was often the source of purpose and meaning in life. Read more here: ifstudies.org/blog/family-an…

Sam Pressler and his colleague @sorenduggan interviewed 30 men for their qualitative research project on friendship, community, and purpose among men without college degrees. Many of the men we spoke to had a strong connection to their families, Pressler says. In fact, the sense of purpose and social support that familial relationships offered emerged as the sole bright spot across our conversations. Family was often all these men had left. Many had no close friends, no community, no mentors, and no sense of purpose beyond supporting their families. It wasn’t just one thing that was missing for living a flourishing, connected life; it was almost everything.

Two reasons US population projections are optimistic: 1. Implausible immigration forecast 2. Assumption that low fertility is temporary The rub: Our fertility crisis is even more dire than we think From @lymanstoneky's excellent @nytopinion nytimes.com/2026/07/11/opi…

The IFS State of Fertility Report from @lymanstoneky and @PeterRFB features: ➡️ Fresh data demonstrating where American family formation has plummeted, ➡️ A forecast showing U.S. population decline could begin as soon as the 2050s. ➡️ Survey results exploring the impacts of friendship and celebrity culture on fertility. ➡️ Policy solutions and cultural changes to raise American birth rates back to where they belong, and back at what Americans want. Read it all here: ifstudies.org/report-brief/t…

Looking for a good weekend read? Check out our latest research on the state of American fertility: ifstudies.org/blog/the-state…

.@lymanstoneky for @nytopinion: "No matter what you believe to be the cause of falling birthrates, that decline is unlikely to spontaneously reverse: There’s no marriage boom on the horizon; young people aren’t switching off their phones; housing isn’t about to become vastly more affordable; and the decline of religion may have paused, but no great religious revival is in sight. Drawing up budget plans on the assumption that we have essentially reached our lowest fertility point, despite other rich countries’ rates being even lower, is nonsensical"

Grateful to see @ValerieFoushee leading the way on a pro-human, pro-family approach to AI chatbot safety that is needed more than ever today.