Work vs. family

A few weeks ago, the Pew Research Center released a survey that found only about 16% thought that being married was essential in order for someone to lead a fulfilling life, while over 50% thought that "having a job or career they enjoy" was necessary.  I learned about this from a newsletter written by David French, who interpreted it as evidence of "workism"--people putting work at the center of their lives.  I had a different interpretation:   that most people regard marriage as a matter of individual choice, not an obligation--if someone doesn't get married, that's their business--but do regard work as an obligation.   Large majorities disapprove of "able-bodied" people getting public assistance, and although I haven't seen any survey questions, I suspect that many people would disapprove of someone who inherited enough money to live on and never looked for a job. So the frequency of "job or career" as an answer was because the question asked what was "essential," rather than what was most important to them, or even what they thought was most important to most other people. 

I've had a couple of posts suggesting that work is less central to people   than it used to be, but neither had data after 2001.  I looked a bit more, and was unable to find anything more recent, but did find a survey from 1999 that asked "what aspect of your life is most fulfilling or satisfying?"  They grouped  the answers into fourteen categories, which I reduced to six plus "don't know."  The overall distribution:

                                  original categories
Family         51%      "family, children"; "marriage"
Other           10%
Social            9%      "social life, friends"; "helping others"
Don't Know  9%
Work             8%        "work"
Religion        7%       "church"; "faith"
Leisure          6%        "hobbies, leisure activities"; "retirement"; "vacation"


Family was by far the most popular choice.  College graduates were a little less likely to say family (49%) and more likely to say work (12%) or social life (12%).    People aged 18-29 and 65+ were somewhat less likely to say family, presumably because they were less likely to be married or have minor children, but they were more likely to say social life--work was below 10% in all age grops.  I looked at a number of other group differences, and the lowest percent picking family was 34% among blacks (who were relatively high in religion and "other"), and the highest for work was 14% among divorced people.  As of 1999, family was far ahead of work as a source of fulfillment.  That was 20 years ago, but the lack of strong age or educational differences suggests it probably hasn't changed much.