Few issues divide Republicans and Democrats more than the importance of marriage. But a new report released yesterday by the Institute for Family Studies and Ethics and Public Policy Center shows there are some divisions about marriage within the Republican coalition as well.

First, on marriage itself, the poll found that an overwhelming majority of Republicans (65%) agreed with the statement that “two biological parents married to each other” is “the best arrangement for a child to be raised.” Only 29% of Democrats agreed with this statement.

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The statement most Democrats preferred (41%) was that “it makes no difference; any type of family structure is as good as any other.”

This finding is in line with a recent Pew Poll, which found that 58% of Republicans agreed with the statement that “married couples do a better job raising children than couples who are living together but not married.” Seventy-three percent of Democrats preferred the statement, “couples who are living together but not married raise children just as well raise children just as well as married couples.”

Democrats clearly believe marriage is irrelevant to the raising of children, whereas Republicans believe it is foundational to a functioning democracy.

But digging into the crosstabs of the EPPC poll, report author and EPPC fellow Patrick Brown notes this:

So parents without a college degree are more skeptical about the rise of feminism, more critical about the easy availability of divorce, and less likely to “celebrate” the idea of “family diversity.” Meanwhile, parents with a college degree are more comfortable with divorce and feminism and more likely to “celebrate” the idea of “family diversity.”

But despite being more willing to “celebrate” family diversity, it turns out that college-educated Republicans are also more likely to agree with the statement that the best environment for children is with two married parents.

So Republicans with college degrees may be more willing to “celebrate” diverse family structures, but they don’t believe these family structures are created equal. They have a clear preference for two-married-biological-parent families.

Also of note on the educational divide, the top cultural concern for parents without a college degree was “family breakdown and the rise in single parenthood.” Among college-educated parents, it was a “rise in non-traditional gender identities.”

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Moving to economic matters, parents without a college degree named inflation and the cost of housing as their top problems facing families. College-educated parents were most likely to choose “work-life balance.”

Please do read the EPPC’s full report. It recommends some good policies, like requiring parental permission before a child can open a social media account. But it also shows strong support for economic policies that can help young couples get and stay married, such as eliminating marriage penalties in our safety net and a $10,000 one-time tax credit for first-time married couples. Both of those policies would go a long way toward addressing working-class parents' top concern of family breakdown.