Youngstown Daily Legal News

Boomers as a group embrace their identity more than other generations

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: November 10, 2015

A large chunk of millennials don’t want to be called millennials and an even larger faction of the silent generation rails against their generational label.

Not so for baby boomers.

A national study released by the Pew Research Center in September found that generational identify is strongest among boomers.

While only 40 percent of millennials, who will soon become the nation’s largest living generation, identify with the term and just 18 percent of silents consider themselves as such, the study found that nearly 80 percent of baby boomers embrace their label.

The Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center surveyed more than 3,100 adults for the study earlier this year.

Respondents were given five commonly used terms for generations, including generation X and the greatest generation, and asked whether they considered themselves part of these generations.

The survey results indicated that some generational names, particularly the baby boomer tag, are more recognizable than others.

Among all respondents, 89 percent have heard of the boomer term while 71 percent have knowledge of the gen X label.

More than half have heard of the millennial generation but only 15 percent of those surveyed — including less than 30 percent of silents — knew of the silent generation name.

Many silents, who range from age 70 to 87, consider themselves part of adjoining generations. Thirty-four percent of them identify as boomers and another 34 percent consider themselves to be in the greatest generation.

Of those in generation X, which is 35 to 50 year olds, 58 percent consider themselves to be part of the group.

The survey results found that silents are far more likely than people in younger age groups to view their own generation in a positive light.

A clear majority of silents described their group as hard working, responsible, patriotic, self-reliant, moral and compassionate.

Baby boomers, who range from age 51 to 69, also indicated favorable impressions of their generation, though in most cases they are not as positive as silents.

In contrast, gen Xers and millennials are far more skeptical in assessing the strengths of their cohorts.

The study found that millennials especially stand out in their willingness to ascribe negative stereotypes to their own generation.

While nearly 60 percent of them labeled their generation as self-absorbed, only 30 percent of gen Xers, 20 percent of boomers and seven percent of silents referenced their contingent as such.

“Some of these differences may be related more to age and life stage than to the unique characteristics of today’s generations,” the study reads, noting that responsibilities tend to increase with age.

“As a result, it is possible that, in any era, older people would be more likely than younger people to view their generation as responsible. In addition, differences between old and young in such realms as patriotism, religiosity and political activism have been evident for many years.”

The study says that generational names are largely the creations of social scientists and market researchers.

“The age boundaries of these widely-used labels are somewhat variable and subjective, so perhaps it is not surprising that many Americans do not identify with ‘their’ generation,” it reads.

“Yet the boomer label resonates strongly with the members of this generation.”

The baby boomer name arose from the fertility spike that began shortly after World War II and continued through the early 1960s.

Pew Research Center officials found that the dismissal of the silent generation tag from the majority of silents reflects the low visibility of the group.

Time magazine coined the name in 1951 saying that silents are “working fairly hard and saying almost nothing.”

Aside from being asked about their generational identity, respondents were asked how well each generational term applies. In this case, the study found that the differences between boomers and the other generations were even starker.

Seventy percent of boomers indicated the term baby boomers applies to them very well or fairly well.

Among the other groups, no more than 40 percent said their generational label is a good fit.

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