National Poll Shows Family Gatherings Important to Most Americans

Sept. 11 may have amplified the importance of spending time with family, but most Americans felt strongly about it even before the national tragedy.

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (March 15, 2002)…How does your family measure up when it comes to getting together? A poll conducted by Harris Interactive/Modern Woodmen of America in June 2001 found that 90 percent of Americans believe getting together with extended family is important. Also, the research found that nearly four out of five of the participants (79 percent) agreed they would like to get together more often with family, but 75 percent feel staying in touch can be difficult in today’s world.

Modern Woodmen, a fraternal life insurance organization, commissioned the research. "We wanted to learn more about family relationships and interaction and to find ways to support families," said Sharon Snawerdt, public relations coordinator at Modern Woodmen of America. "We want to help improve families’ quality of life."

Since there are more constraints than ever on Americans’ time, Modern Woodmen wanted to create an easily accessible tool to help bring families together. A brand new Web site, gatherings.info, was developed to give Americans the tools to make planning a gathering simple and fun. Users can navigate through tips, lists and ideas on how to organize a gathering, whether small or large. The site not only provides checklists and location and travel advice, but also recipes, games, themes and photography tips, as well as suggestions on how to research your family tree.

"We wanted to do more to help families improve their quality of life. Having this tool readily available helps people save time when planning a family get-together, which allows the planner to spend more time with his/her family before, during and after the gathering," said Snawerdt. "It also makes it easier for them to get together more often."

The poll also revealed that four out of five Americans say they would be interested in attending family gatherings more often. Modern Woodmen has been bringing people and families together informally for years through its fraternal programs and local chapters, called camps. Coordinated by local Modern Woodmen members, these groups organize social, educational and volunteer service events to meet needs in their communities across the United States.

"In this research, we also found that people with children are nearly twice as likely as those without children to attend a family gathering at least once a month or more," said Snawerdt. "However, both groups agreed that it is very important for children to know their extended family."

In fact, families with children at home are significantly more likely to be very interested in pursuing various kinds of family connections than those without children.

People with children are also more likely to research family history than people without children, according to the poll.

Americans connect with extended family through a number of family activities. No surprise to anyone, holiday events like Thanksgiving and Christmas are Americans’ favorite family events to attend, with informal family gatherings coming in second.

In the last three years, 87 percent of the polled participants attended an informal family gathering, and nine in 10 Americans attended a family holiday event.

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