Brian J. Willoughby is a professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University and a fellow of the Wheatley Institute.

A subtle but significant shift is occurring among teens and young adults regarding one of the hallmark behaviors of youth: dating.

It was once hard to find young people who weren't actively dating. Now the opposite is true.

The percentage of single adults is growing and a large portion of young adult singles are no longer even looking for romantic partners. Dating in high schools has been decreasing for decades, and online dating platforms are feeling the pinch as they lose users each year to burnout and disinterest. Americans are even having sex less than previous generations.

Declines in marriage rates have been a talking point in my field for 15 years, but this more recent disengagement from all forms of romantic connection feels different and is more confusing.

Did we suddenly lose our interest in love and romance? What happened that made so many of our youth decide to disengage from dating?

Most young people still aspire to marriage at some point in their lives, even if they push it further down the road. These new trends suggest not just a delay in marriage, but also a retreat from both marriage and dating altogether.

This increasing disconnect from romance, dating and marriage among our youth not only means more adults will be facing isolation and loneliness in the future, but also that family formation -- a key stabilizing aspect of our culture and one that holds numerous benefits to children and adults -- is slowly eroding.

I am part of a team of researchers from the Utah Marriage Commission and Brigham Young University seeking to understand why so many young people are avoiding marriage and dating. Recently, we surveyed over 5,000 singles in their 20s and early 30s from across the United States to understand why marriage and dating have become less appealing to the rising generation.

The early insights from this study can help us understand some of the fears, struggles and obstacles that young people believe get in the way of a happy romantic relationship and marriage in the future.

Here are three of the common barriers to dating we saw in our study.

One of the clearest obstacles to dating among young adults is that these relationships are simply not a top priority, not only early in life but also at any point.

When asked directly about this time of their lives, less than half of men and women said that marriage was among one of their top priorities. We also found that less than a third (31%) of men and less than half (40%) of women reported that getting married was more important than having a successful career.

As reflected in these numbers, career priorities are increasingly trumping love and romance for modern young adults. Dating and eventual marriage have appeared to become distant contenders for young adults' time, energy and resources as they increasingly focus on their careers and the education that precedes them.

But this isn't just about becoming more career focused. Even when they are dating, young adults are very aware of whether a relationship interferes with their personal aspirations and carefully consider if dating will negatively impact their individual hobbies and pursuits. Our survey reflects that.

We found that an overwhelming majority -- 77% of men and 65% of women -- said they try to maintain a focus on other life goals when they are dating.

Taken together, marriage and dating are becoming distant secondary priorities for most young adults in the United States.

Financial barriers to romantic relationships, especially marriage, appear to be a major mental hurdle for many young adults.

A large portion of the young adults we surveyed -- 72% of men and 75% of women -- agreed that finances were a major barrier to marriage, with almost 80% of both genders acknowledging finances were at least a significant consideration when thinking about getting married.

Financial barriers also extend to dating itself.

The high cost of online dating is something that many young adults now cite as a reason for their burnout with such apps and why they are leaving them. Combined with the financial cost of in-person dating, these barriers are a common reason many young adults are held back from willingly and enthusiastically engaging in the dating process.

With inflation fears swirling, many young adults simply feel like the economic investment needed for dating isn't worth it.

The mental health of teens and young adults has been declining for the past 20 years. Social media and other factors have left many young people struggling with their self-worth and personal confidence.

This lack of confidence seems to be significantly impacting dating as well, offering another reason why more young people are avoiding it. Many young people today struggle to muster the courage to even put themselves in a vulnerable position by asking someone on a date or being in a relationship.

In our survey, we found that half of men and 44% of women reported lacking confidence in starting a romantic relationship, while a third of both men and women reported being "afraid" to start one.

This low confidence also appears to stem from a struggle to rebound from past negative experiences. More so than in the past, modern young people are easily dissuaded from dating by a bad break-up or negative experience with a former partner -- with 50% of men and 45% of women saying they were hesitant to date due to past bad dating experiences.

We saw strong evidence that many young people feel they lack the skills and confidence needed to fully engage in the dating process and worry that dating would only bring them heartache and stress.

Is Utah any different when it comes to these trends? Not much, unfortunately. While Utah generally has a higher marriage rate than the rest of the country, our data suggests that young adults from the state have very similar fears and hesitations about dating and marriage as the rest of the country.

We oversampled a group of single young adults from Utah and found very similar findings. Compared with 36% of single adults elsewhere, 35% of Utahns said marriage was more important than having a successful career -- with about half saying marriage was among their top priorities. But in terms of confidence in forming relationships, 54% said they lacked confidence in forming relationships -- slightly higher than the national average. Over half (52%) of Utahns said they were hesitant to date due to past bad experiences in relationships, also slightly higher than the national average.

There are limitations to this comparison, though. Utah has a large population of highly religious young adults, many of whom are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since our survey focused on single young adults in their mid-late 20s and early 30s, many of these pro-marriage Latter-day Saint young adults may already be married by their late 20s, making the Utah sample of singles we surveyed more similar to young adults nationwide than might be expected.

While each of these issues may require specific interventions, there are some common solutions to address the core of many of these obstacles. This certainly isn't the first generation to face significant fears about forming a family -- or experiencing temptations to see it as a low priority.

Whatever we're currently doing to encourage and support young people, it's time to do more.

First, we need more educational resources for teens and young adults seeking to create lifelong marriages and relationships -- countering many of the unrealistic expectations and ominous fears that can doom otherwise successful matches. Most young people have received little to no education on essential relationship and dating skills. We spend significantly more time teaching teens how to write essays and solve equations than how to navigate relationships that will impact them for the rest of their lives.

The state of Utah is on the forefront of this effort nationally, with the Utah Marriage Commission offering free educational materials, relationship assessments and e-learning courses for Utah residents. Specifically, DatingREADY is a new, free course for Utah residents aimed at helping young adults navigate the modern dating landscape.

We can also do more to help provide teens and young adults with more opportunities to meet new people and find potential dating partners. Only 20% of the single young adults we surveyed were satisfied with their current dating options.

Online dating has had its day in the sun, but many people are coming away weary, frustrated or burned. The magic of in-person connection endures. Community gatherings, church-sponsored activities and other local events geared toward helping young people connect will help provide more dating opportunities for our youth.

Finally, as obvious as it may sound, it's time to rally even more community support around healthy and happy relationships. Young adults and teens need positive models and messages about dating and marriage to increase their confidence in the power of love and connection, confidence that is currently low. We need our youth to see more successful and happy couples celebrated and placed front and center in their lives.

More than anything, they need to hear stories of couples who have successfully navigated modern obstacles and found happiness in marriage. While most young adults we surveyed still want to get married someday, many modern obstacles make current dating and eventual family formation challenging.

Yet with a little more support, the sweetness of romance, marriage and children awaits so many of them. To help them get there, our youth need more family, community and societal support to make romance a priority in their lives again.