The most-watched movies in Spain hardly reflect the desire to start a family, even though 70% of young people do want to do so

The Foundation The Family Watch has presented the report «Families on Screen: Models of the Home in the Most-Watched Movies and TV Series in Spain in 2025», a study conducted by researchers at Nebrija University and Rey Juan Carlos University, with support from Methos Media, which presents a striking conclusion: the fiction that Spaniards consume the most barely reflects the desire to start a family, even though a majority of the country’s young people do aspire to have one.

The study analyzed 40 audiovisual productions—the ten most-watched series and the ten most-watched films on both linear television and streaming platforms in 2025—using a content analysis methodology applied to 158 characters representing different family dynamics.

Families Are There, But Almost Always in Crisis

According to the study’s data, 56% of the family systems depicted on screen are marked by conflict, fragmentation, or breakdown, while 33% portray the family unit as problematic or in crisis. In contrast to these figures, only 5% of the stories offer an aspirational or clearly positive family model.

The report points out, however, a paradox: although family structures appear to be weakened, many of the characters serve the narrative function of keeping them together. The 28% serves as the emotional backbone of the family group, ahead of authority figures (22%) and characters who generate conflict (20%).

«Fiction creates characters who provide emotional support to families that, narratively speaking, appear to be broken or in the process of breaking apart. It is one of the most interesting paradoxes revealed by the study,» explains Carmen Llovet, one of the researchers who authored the report.

Another notable finding is that nearly one in four characters (23%) lacks a recognizable family structure—an absence that, according to the authors, is not coincidental: it is often used as a narrative device to characterize the antagonist, justify certain behaviors, or simply render the character’s family environment invisible.

Care still has a woman's face

The report also highlights how caregiving responsibilities are distributed in fiction. The mother appears as the primary caregiver in 26% of the cases, compared to just 11% for the father. In contrast, family absence is mostly associated with male characters: 19% of men play this narrative role, compared to only 3% of women. Shared responsibility for caregiving appears in 221 out of every 3,000 productions analyzed, though it remains in the minority.

«Shared responsibility is beginning to appear in fiction, but it does not yet significantly challenge a model of care that remains closely tied to the maternal figure,» notes researcher Ernesto García, a co-author of the study.

Traditional family values endure

Despite the weight of these conflicts, the report notes that fiction continues to convey values historically associated with the family. Notable among these are sacrifice and family duty (23%), followed by individual autonomy (19%) and tradition and continuity (12%). Furthermore, the family remains a defining element in the construction of the characters’ identities: it has a decisive influence on who they are in 62% of the cases and shapes their decisions throughout the plot in 45%.

«The narratives reveal a constant tension between loyalty to the family and the pursuit of a personal goal. Even when the family barely appears on screen, it continues to shape the protagonists» motivations,” notes researcher Cristina Gallego.

The study also analyzes the context in which this fiction is produced and consumed. Spain accounts for 50% of the most-watched productions, with Netflix and RTVE Play as the leading platforms for consumption, at a time when the rise of streaming is profoundly transforming narrative formats.

Five Recommendations for Improving Family Representation

Based on these results, the report proposes five lines of action aimed at both the audiovisual industry and public administrations:

1. Incorporate the desire to start a family as a legitimate narrative thread.
2. Raise awareness of caregiving and distribute it more evenly between men and women.
3. Show a greater diversity of family models, including from functional and positive perspectives.
4. Incorporate criteria for family representation into public policies on audiovisual funding.
5. Promote audiovisual literacy to foster a critical perspective on the family models portrayed in fiction.

For María José Olesti, executive director of The Family Watch, the report’s findings are «particularly relevant, since fiction shapes the collective imagination and represents what is normal, desirable, or possible.» In this regard, she emphasizes that data such as the persistence of women’s caregiving roles or the low prevalence of the desire to start a family among young Spaniards—even though a high percentage do want to—constitute «a very significant finding» for rethinking how fiction portrays family life.