Talkin’ About My Gen-er-a-tion
External factors have mild effects on teens

By Gilien Silsby, USC News Service

Far from slackers, Generation Xers are more ambitious, principled and grounded than their Baby Boomer parents were 30 years ago. Although they’ve been described as the lost generation, a USC study has found that image may not be accurate or fair.

The study, which appears in the book “How Families Still Matter: A Longitudinal Study of Youth in Two Generations” (Cambridge University Press), draws from the 30-year study of generations conducted at USC. The researchers, sociology professors Vern L. Bengtson and Timothy Biblarz, and Robert Roberts, a professor at Cal State San Marcos, compared achievements and family influences on Gen Xers, born in the 1970s and 1980s, with those of their Baby Boomer parents, born in the 1940s and 1950s.

Using survey data collected from as early as 1971, they assessed self-confidence, values and goals from approximately 1,000 19-year-olds from two Southern California generations. The discovery: Gen Xers were more ambitious at 19 than their Baby Boomer parents were at the same age, and had higher self-esteem and greater social values.

The strength of parents’ influence on life choices and achievements is significant—and at about the same level—for the two generations. “These findings indicate the resilience of intergenerational family bonds in the context of massive social changes since the 1960s,” Bengtson says. “They suggest that in the 21st century, families and cross-generational connections will still be vitally important in influencing youths’ values, choices and life course.”

To the researchers’ surprise, parental divorce had a small impact on Gen Xers’ achievement. “It’s certainly much lower than the ‘divorce is disaster’ literature would predict,” says Bengtson.

Children who grew up in families where mothers worked outside the home were no less well adjusted than children with stay-at-home moms.

“The conventional wisdom that today’s family is in decline implies that moms who work or choose to divorce are robbing their children in some way,” Biblarz says. “Our study shows that single motherhood and working moms have not produced any dire consequences.”

To sum up their findings, the authors offer three new hypotheses. Extended kin—particularly grandparents—are more important than ever. “Grandparents are living longer and are sharing their time and financial resources with grandchildren, particularly those affected by divorce,” Bengtson says.

In addition, today’s two-parent families may be more successful than ever before. “We may be seeing a ‘survival of the fittest’ in marriages today,” says Biblarz. “For example, in previous generations, many parents stayed in unhappy marriages that resulted in negative consequences for children. Our research suggests that those parents who stay together by choice, not necessity, may have more achievement-oriented children.”

Finally, through ups and downs, most parents—particularly mothers—seem to continue to find ways to take good care of their children. “While 40 percent of Generation X teens experienced their parents’ divorce, they felt as close to their mothers as Baby Boomer youth did 26 years earlier,” Biblarz says. “And that is extremely hopeful, and perhaps one of the best outcomes of the study.”