An overwhelming majority of parents favour marriage, as a lifelong exclusive commitment, for their children over all other kinds of relationships, according to a new poll.
The Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion survey asked: “When you think of your children or the children you might have in the future, what kind of relationship do you wish for them?”
Maria Steen, who was asked by The Sunday Independent to submit a question to the poll, welcomed the results because they show people still acknowledge that marriage “is an institution that is critical not only for the stability of society, but for individual happiness and fulfilment”.
She also noted a significant gender difference among young people: among 18- to 34-year-old 12pc of women favoured having multiple relationships instead of marriage, against only 3pc of men.
She said this is another indication that, “for the first time in generations (if ever), young men are becoming more conservative than young women in relation to sexual ethics”.
