U.S. Teens Want A Good Job And Financial Success More Than Marriage And Kids

American teenagers today place less importance on getting married and having children than they do on finding a job that’s satisfying and on achieving financial success, a new study shows.

The survey of over 1,300 teenagers aged between 13 and 17, and conducted by the Pew Research Center, found that 86% of respondents said that it was extremely or very important to them to have a job or career they enjoy when they’re an adult. Just 36% said that they cared about getting married, and just 30% said that having children was important to them.

Responses on the topic of future life plans were broadly aligned across genders with one notable exception: At 74%, girls were 9 percentage points more likely than boys to say that having close friends is highly important to them. And the researchers also observed some differences by race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic teens were more likely than their white counterparts to say that having a lot of money in future is extremely or very important to them. A total of 76% of Black teens and 66% of Hispanic teens said this, while only half of all white teens did.

On the flip side, white teens tended to prioritize having close friends in adulthood. Three-quarters of all white respondents said that this was extremely or very important to them, compared to 64% of Hispanic teens and 62% of Black teens.

Pew’s survey covered a host of other topics, too, revealing more gender divides. It found, for example, that across genders anxiety and depression top the list of problems respondents said they see their peers dealing with most at school.

For both girls and boys getting good grades was cited as the primary source of this pressure, followed by pressure to “look good” and to “fit in socially.” Girls, however, were significantly more likely than boys to say that they feel pressure to look good and fit in socially—at 55% and 45%, respectively, compared to 36% and 27% for boys.

The survey also revealed significant gender differences on ambitions to attend college after high school. Overall, 53% of respondents across genders said that they plan to attend a four-year college when they finish high school but within that number, girls—at 60%—were much more likely than boys—at 46%—to say so. Boys, in turn, were more likely than girls to say that they intend to go to a vocational school after high school, that they want to work full time, or that they plan to join the military.