Kids These Days

Ann Hulbert profiles the views of persons given the unfortunate label "Generation Next," those of us between the ages of 18-25. She says that "what makes Gen Nexters sui generis — and perhaps more mysterious than their elders appreciate — are their views on two divisive social topics, abortion and gay marriage." In particular, "Young Americans, it turns out, are unexpectedly conservative on abortion but notably liberal on gay marriage."

Given that 18- to 25-year-olds are the least Republican generation (35 percent) and less religious than their elders (with 20 percent of them professing no religion or atheism or agnosticism), it is curious that on abortion they are slightly to the right of the general public. Roughly a third of Gen Nexters endorse making abortion generally available, half support limits and 15 percent favor an outright ban. By contrast, 35 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds support readily available abortions. On gay marriage, there was not much of a generation gap in the 1980s, but now Gen Nexters stand out as more favorably disposed than the rest of the country. Almost half of them approve, compared with under a third of those over 25.

There seems to be more bark than bite on that abortion result. "Roughly a third" and "35 percent" are very similar numbers when you're talking about statistical surveys with margins of error. Hulbert then starts offering a lot of speculative thinking about what accounts for "Generation Next" opinion on this and that. I note that, like many authors, Hulbert seems to both assume that the Generation Next cohort is demographically identical to the Baby Boom cohort except for age. Relatedly, the background assumption of her speculation seems to be that differences in opinion are accounted for by the fact that white middle class young people have different views about things than do white middle class older people.

In fact, as you can read here (PDF) the median age of non-hispanic white Americans is 40.3, of African-Americans is 30.9, of Asian Americans is 34.5 and of Hispanics is 27.2 -- these are big differences. Thus, when you compare 18-25 year-olds to 50-64 year-olds you're comparing a youth cohort that's substantially less white than your middle-aged cohort which, all on its own, can make a big difference without anyone necessarily "disagreeing with their parents" about anything. Some parents have more children than others. This also seems to indicate that occassionally voiced fears (or hopes) that highly religious conservative parents will wind up outbreeding liberals is unwarranted.

3/12/07 10:13AM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

First of all, I can't believe they don't control for the ethnic profiles of the different age groups, if that's in fact the case.

Secondly, the final sentence seems like a non-sequiter: "This also seems to indicate that occassionally voiced fears (or hopes) that highly religious conservative parents will wind up outbreeding liberals is unwarranted."
Conservative parents could be outbreeding liberal ones, but that effect could by offset by immigration of liberals.

Posted by: Jim W on March 12, 2007 10:39 AM

As far as today's generation knows, a coat hanger is what you wear your coat on. That makes a difference.

Posted by: Steve on March 12, 2007 10:59 AM

Crazy young kids. We better get the rhetoric machine fired up so we can start painting them as catholic propoganda machines that oppose contraception and are in favor of poor black people in africa getting the aids.

Posted by: Mike on March 12, 2007 11:24 AM

I seem to recall "Generation Next" was a Pepsi ad campaign slogan. Is this how we really want to be referring to ourselves?

Posted by: Brian on March 12, 2007 11:33 AM

Holy shit, they've started writing articles about my younger brother's age cohort. Maybe I can dig those slacker articles out of storage and we can bond.

Posted by: norbizness on March 12, 2007 12:18 PM

Re; Conservative parents could be outbreeding liberal ones, but that effect could by offset by immigration of liberals.

And of course the very obvious fact that politics is not genetic

Posted by: JonF on March 12, 2007 01:05 PM

Matt - I think Hulbert understands that "roughly a third" and 35% are similar numbers. That in fact is her point. With Gen Next being the "least Republican" you would not expect the percentages to be close. The difference she points out isn't in the overall percentage, it's in the percentage of abortion opponents relative to the percentage of Republicans in the age group.

Posted by: Gollum on March 12, 2007 02:59 PM

sweet ryan mcginley pic

Posted by: gene on March 12, 2007 03:15 PM

Steve at 10:59 has it exactly right. the older generation had to deal with the reality of abortion as illegal. The "Generation Next" in the USA has not.

Posted by: Edo on March 12, 2007 04:35 PM

I seem to recall "Generation Next" was a Pepsi ad campaign slogan.

A Pepsi ad campaign featuring the Spice Girls, at that.

Posted by: Thlayli on March 12, 2007 05:45 PM

Jesus fucking Christ. Generation Next? Boo. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I refuse to allow that to be my generational nickname. What's the shelf life on a name with Next in it, anyway?

Posted by: Freddie on March 12, 2007 08:32 PM

The shelve life is for ever, it's all in how you think that's important. The only thing I have in common with Baby Boomers is my age.
Jo6pac
God that name sucks

Posted by: jo6pac on March 12, 2007 09:28 PM

Jim W writes:
"Conservative parents could be outbreeding liberal ones, but that effect could by offset by immigration of liberals."

That sounds like a recipe for one increasingly white party and and one increasingly non-white party.

Posted by: pjgoober on March 12, 2007 11:44 PM

These "Profile of a Generation" pieces come along every 5 or so years, and whether its Generation X™, Y™ or, um, Next™ (sorry guys, you really got shafted with that label ;] ), the generalizations are always wildly broad and the analysis breathless. While amusing and maybe even interesting, I wouldnt put too much credence in these numbers. Having been on the cusp between X and Y when each of these got their big TV moment, its interesting to see how many of the descriptions seem to get applied to the Generation du Jour, then taken back and given to the next Gen, and how "Baby Boomer" seems to encompass pretty much everyone between the ages of 40-70. Somehow one Gen gets 30 years, and then the next few get 5 or so years each. ;)

Posted by: brooklynmatt on March 13, 2007 04:59 PM

Thanks
Best regards
mirc
mirç
mırc
mırç
mircturk
turkmirc
mirc indir
mirc yukle
mirch
mırch
forum
forum
turkforum
turkiyeforum
mirc
turkmirc
toplist
site ekle
pagerank
turkmirc
turkforum
sohbet
türk
karar