Cultural Continuity and the Rise of the Millennials: Generational Trends in Politics, Religion, and Economic Values
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Drawing on data from over 100,000 Americans from face-to-face structured interviews, in this dissertation I document large, statistically significant intergenerational shifts in party affiliation, religious identification, and economic values and beliefs.These differences remain even after adjusting for baseline controls as well as multilevel models that model age and year effects as distinct from cohort effects.There are three main findings regarding intergenerational change and cultural identity.First, I find that about half of millennials in America do not identify with a major political party, which is explained by changing demographic conditions as well as plummeting support for mainstream political parties.Second, I show that about one-third of millennials do not identify with any religious group, which is accounted for in part by a greater percentage growing up in non-traditional religious households as well as changing attitudes related to science and technology.Finally, regarding economic views I document growing support for government-led wealth redistribution combined with plummeting levels of trust across all measures.The most robust factor for these shifting economic views are greater levels of job insecurity among younger cohorts.Taken together, these findings underscore that, although emerging gradually from a continual process of intergenerational replacement, millennials have emerged as a distinct cultural group with the potential to significantly alter the political, religious, and economic lineaments of American society.
Author: Ethan Fosse
Language: English
Subfield: Life-span and Life-course Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2168674859