Majority of Texans support mask requirements in public places

Washington, DC, August 18, 2021 

A strong majority of Texans support mask requirements in public places, including schools, offices or workplaces, and restaurants, according to a new Spectrum News/Ipsos poll. In spite of an executive order in place prohibiting such requirements, seven in ten – or more – support these measures.

Currently, 43% of Texans approve of Governor Greg Abbott’s handling of COVID-19, while 53% say they disapprove of the job he’s doing handling the virus. More Texans now disapprove of the governor’s handling of the issue, compared to our October 2020 survey, where Texans were more evenly split (48% approved, 43% disapproved).

When asked how much they trust various leaders and agencies to provide accurate information about COVID-19, 66% of Texans say they trust the Centers for Disease Control. Exactly half of Texans say they trust President Joe Biden. At the bottom of the list are Gov. Abbott (40%) and former President Donald Trump (33%).

Among Texan parents with a school-age child, 64% feel their child would be safe attending school in person, but almost equal numbers (66%) are worried about them catching COVID-19 back at school. Consequently, most Texans (77%) want local school districts to offer virtual learning as an option during the upcoming K-12 school year. Finally, among Texan parents with children under the age of 18, 49% say they are likely to have their child vaccinated once it is available for their age group.

For additional information, visit: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/polls/2021/08/16/exclusive-spectrum-news-ipsos-poll-finds-texas-parents-want-common-sense-precautions-against-covid

About the Study 

This Spectrum News/Ipsos Texas poll was conducted August 6-13, 2021, by Ipsos using the KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a representative sample of 1,358 residents of Texas, age 18 or older.

The study was conducted in both English and Spanish. The data were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race/ethnicity, education, household income, language proficiency, party ID, parent status by gender, parent status by age, and parent status by education. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) from the US Census Bureau. The weighting categories were as follows:

• Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18–29, 30-44, 45-59 and 60+)
• Race/Hispanic Ethnicity (White Non-Hispanic, Black Non-Hispanic, Other Non-Hispanic Hispanic)
• Education (High School graduate or less, Some College, Bachelor and beyond)
• Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Household Income (Under $25,000, $25,000-$49,999, $50,000-$74,999, $75,000-$99,999, $100,000-$149,999, $150,000+)
• Language proficiency (English proficient, Bilingual, Spanish proficient, Non-Hispanic, not asked)
• Party ID (Republican, Democrat, Independent, Other/Refused)
• Parent status (Parent, non-parent) by Gender (Male, Female)
• Parent status (Parent, non-parent) by Age (18-44, 45+)
• Parent status (Parent, non-parent) by Education (Some College or less, Bachelor and beyond)

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. Among parents of children age 4-17, the margin of error is plus or minus 6.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The margin of error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.66 for all adults and 1.60 among parents of children age 4-17. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.

This poll is trended with a Spectrum News/Ipsos Texas poll, conducted October 7-14, 2021. That poll contained n=1,000 residents of Texas and n=270 parents to children ages 5-17. Note that this study was conducted using opt-in sample and therefore has a credibility interval, a measure of precision used for Ipsos online polls, of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for all respondents and plus or minus 6.8 percentage points for parents. While significant changes in data points can largely be attributed to the rapidly changing landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic, the methodological shift may have also generated a slight mode effect.

For more information on this news release, please contact: 

Mallory Newall 
Vice President, US   
Public Affairs   
+1 202 420-2014   
[email protected]     

Kate Silverstein 
Media Relations Specialist, US   
Public Affairs   
+1 718 755-8829
[email protected] 

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Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. We serve more than 5000 clients across the world with 75 business solutions.

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