67% Say Economy Causing Family Stress

With the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes hovering near two-year lows and unemployment rates still in the nine percent (9%) range, it's perhaps no surprise to find that a majority of Americans say the economy is adding stress to their family.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of American Adults say the state of the economy is causing more stress on their family.  That finding is up 10 points from this time last year. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say the economy isn’t causing their family more stress.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

But only 28% say the economy has negatively affected their personal relationship with any friend or family member. This shows virtually no change from August of last year.

Still, 43% of adults say they have gotten into an intense argument with a friend or family member about economic conditions in the country.  That's up six points from 37% last year. Fifty-five percent (55%) say they have not gotten into a heated argument with a friend or family member about who is to blame for the state of the economy and how it should be fixed.  

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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 31-August 1, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology.