Time Allocation Behavior of Twentieth-Century American Generations: GI Generation, Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials

Abstract

In recent years, time engagement behaviors of two generations, namely Baby Boomers and Millennials have sparked much interest because these generations constitute the bulk of the American population today and they also exhibit “atypical” activity–travel patterns compared with other generations. The objective of the current research is to conduct a systematic study of the time engagement behaviors of five American generations: the GI Generation (birth year: 1901–1924), the Silent Generation (birth year: 1925–1943), Baby Boomers (birth year: 1944–1964), Generation X (birth year: 1965–1981), and Millennials (birth year: 1982–2000). Particularly, the study aims at isolating heterogeneity in behaviors associated with structural changes in the society from those associated with inherent generational characteristics. Using data from four waves (1965, 1985, 2005, and 2012) of the American Heritage and Time Use Study, the analysis explores the time engagement behaviors while accounting for the age, period, and cohort effects in addition to different socioeconomic and demographic variables. The analysis reveals that Millennials have generally delayed participation in life-changing events such as marriage and workforce entry, and have exhibited prolonged student status compared with previous generations. Millennials show lower participation in work and higher participation in discretionary activities compared with individuals of the same age group from previous generations. On the other hand, Baby Boomers clearly exhibited increased travel engagement compared with the previous generations at different stages of their lives.

Clustering Life Course to Understand the Heterogeneous Effects of Life Events, Gender, and Generation on Habitual Travel Modes

“…Complete results can be found in SI Tables S8-S11. Mobility patterns also differ by generation owing to different residence preferences, travel time allocation, economics, and community infrastructure changes among generations [41]. We do not find significant differences among younger (GenX) versus older generations regarding the effects of attending school or being employed.…”

“…We restrict the analysis to the 17,777 annual observations from the 569 respondents who were age 35 or older at the time they took the survey (in 2018) (71% of the data remaining after the above-described cleaning steps). This selection ensures that we observe responses for ages between 20 and 35 to be used in the clustering analyses, which captures a life period that presents the greatest heterogeneity among the population [20], [41]. The number of remaining respondents used in this analysis (569) is in the range of the sample sizes from previous life history calendar studies in transportation behavior research (see Table S1 in the SI; sample sizes of 66-1799 with a median of 414) for deriving insights with a similar level of confidence.…”

“…We align the family and career trajectories by age and focus on the age range between 20 and 35 to determine the similarity among respondents and their subsequent cluster membership. This age range is chosen because demographic events that cause the most variable status changes in life trajectories occur relatively early in life [20], [41]. Furthermore, this age range has no missing data in the analysis sample, so we can avoid biased clustering results due to treatment of missing values in computing the similarity metrics as documented in our previous work [47], [48].…”

“We Are at Risk Too”: The Disparate Mental Health Impacts of the Pandemic on Younger Generations: Nous Sommes Aussi à Risque: Les Effets Disparates de la Pandémie Sur la Santé Mentale des Générations Plus Jeunes

“…Sociodemographics. We derived generation groups from precategorizations by Statistics Canada that approximate definitions from prior research [25][26][27][28] : "Millennials" (aged 15 to 34 years), "Generation X" (ages 35 to 54 years), "Baby Boomers" (ages 55 to 74 years), and the "Greatest/Silent Generations" (ages 75þ). Within the Survey 2 sample, Baby Boomers were collapsed with the Greatest/Silent Generations due to the highest predetermined age category being 55þ.…”

“We are at risk too”: The disparate impacts of the pandemic on younger generations

“…Sociodemographics. We derived generation groups from pre-categorizations by Statistics Canada that approximate definitions from prior research: [22][23][24][25] "Millennials" (ages 15-34), "Generation X" (ages 35-54), "Baby Boomers" (ages 55-74), and the "Greatest/Silent Generations" (ages 75+). Within the survey 2 sample, Baby Boomers were collapsed with the Greatest/Silent Generations due to the highest pre-determined age category being 55+.…”