12 Percent of Americans Say a Family Member is Addicted to Heroin or Opioids, New National Survey Reveals

The third annual American Family Survey, a nationwide Deseret News/Brigham Young University study conducted by YouGov, found that twelve percent of respondents said that someone in their family has an addiction to heroin/opioids, and 15 percent said a family member has an alcohol addiction. Five percent of people overall said they themselves were addicted to heroin/opioids and six percent said they were addicted to alcohol. The self-reported rates for addiction are higher in men than in women, and both white and black respondents report less addiction than Hispanics.

The poll, the first American Family Survey fielded in the age of Trump, examined Trump voters, Clinton voters and non-voters, finding that all respondents place the lion's share of the blame for addiction on addicts and the dealers, with only about a quarter or less of the population placing "a lot" of blame on any other institution or group (such as drug companies, doctors or government policies). However, that blame differs substantially by vote choice. Trump voters place the most blame on dealers and addicts (69% and 64% respectively), whereas Clinton voters place less (59% and 41%) and nonvoters place the least amount of blame on those groups (50% and 42%).

"We hear a lot about opioid addiction in the media, and this new research shows with stark clarity just how serious the problem is," said Allison Pond, editor of the Deseret News In-depth team and a former Pew Research Center staffer. "The results also illustrate that the drug epidemic is not just affecting families, but also communities, as more than a quarter of our respondents told us that drug addiction is a 'very big problem' in the area where they live."

The American Family Survey also uncovered new attitudes on marriage, relationships and family, and how those experiences relate to people's opinions on a wide variety of political and social issues, including phones and social media usage, immigration, health and government programs. More results from the poll are at deseretnews.com/american-family-survey, along with a full report for download.

The poll was designed by Christopher Karpowitz and Jeremy Pope of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University; Doug Wilks, Editor of the Deseret News; Allison Pond, Editor of the Deseret News In-depth team and a former Pew Research Center staffer; and Sam Sturgeon, President of Demographic Intelligence. They consulted an advisory board which included Karlyn Bowman, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; Sara McLanahan, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton; Richard Reeves, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former strategy advisor to the deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom; and W. Brad Wilcox, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and Director of the National Marriage Project.

METHODOLOGY

Between August 1 and August 7, 2017, YouGov interviewed 3,264 respondents who were then matched down to a sample of 3,000 to produce the final dataset. The respondents were matched to a sampling frame on gender, age, race, education, party identification, ideology, and political interest. The frame was constructed by stratified sampling from the full 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) sample with selection within strata by weighted sampling with replacements (using the person weights on the public use file). Data on voter registration status and turnout were matched to this frame using the November 2010 Current Population Survey. Data on interest in politics and party identification were then matched to this frame from the 2007 Pew Religious Life Survey. The matched cases were weighted to the sampling frame using propensity scores. The matched cases and the frame were combined and a logistic regression was estimated for inclusion in the frame. The propensity score function included age, gender, race/ethnicity, years of education, and ideology. The propensity scores were grouped into deciles of the estimated propensity score in the frame and post-stratified according to these deciles.

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ABOUT THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF ELECTIONS AND DEMOCRACY (CSED) AT BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY (BYU)

The Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy (CSED) at Brigham Young University is a nonpartisan academic research center seeking to increase knowledge about the practice of American democracy. CSED is committed to the production and dissemination of research that meets high academic standards, is useful to policy makers, and informs citizens. CSED-sponsored research has been published by leading academic journals and presses in the areas of campaign finance, voting technology and election reform, presidential and congressional elections, religion and politics and democratic deliberation.

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SOURCE Deseret News

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