Youth studies – an interdisciplinary approach
Lecture 1 – age, period and cohort effects – 12-09-22
Why focus on youth?
Adolescence/young adulthood most formative important life phase (both at an individual &
societal/cohort level):
Transition to adulthood (education, job, relationship, family formation)
Young people are most open to change and innovation (seismographic function for
future trends in society)
Most change comes from young people
Gender equality, sexual freedom, climate change (Greta Thunberg)
The generational approach (share same specific characteristics)
Baby boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1979), Millennials (1980-1994)
The age limits are established based on research, based on which age groups have similar
ideas or ideals
The millennial cohort
Technology
Diversity (immigration, gender)
Apolitical
Unaffiliated, anti-hierarchical, distrustful
Upbeat / optimistic
What happens during adolescence stays with you during adult life (so the generation
characteristics will still be with you if you are 80 for example)
Music that you heard in high school, stays with you and your peers. Is a strong characteristic
of your generation
Our generation (iGen / Generation Z)
COVID-19
Terrorist attacks
Vlogging (earn money)
Quick access to (fake) information
Smartphones
Conspiracy theories
Election of Barack Obama (first black president)
Trump
Mh17 (airplane that was shot down by Russia (accidently))
Youth as an independent phase in the life course
Transitions in the youth phase
Exit childhood – entrance adulthood. In between is the youth phase
, 19th century: industrialization, expanded public education, urbanization adolescence was
born
Since then the youth phase has been extended
‘The adolescent stage has long seemed to me one of the most fascinating of all themes. These
years are the best decade of life… It is a state from which some of the bad, but far more of the
good qualities of life and mind arise.’ G. Stanley Hall (1904): scientific study of adolescence
So the adolescent stage is the phase where they flourish and grow (unlike how the media
presents adolescents ‘de jeugd van tegenwoordig’ smoking and drinking)
Women are able to have children earlier (earlier menarche (first menstruation)), but they have
children later and later. The mean age is nowadays over 30 years old (because of studying and
job)
Studying youth transitions
APC – analysis
A (age): something happens because you get older (menarche (between 10 & 14 years
old); voting (18 years old))
P (period): historical event affecting everybody (war)
C (cohort): event especially affects a particular age-group/cohort (=people who are
born in the same historical period; they have particular characteristics and move
through history together (hippies – weed)
Are 60-year-olds more liberal compared to 20-year-olds towards weed because they used to
be hippies (cohort) or because of age effect (how older, the more liberal)?
Example: drinking alcohol
Age: as you get older, you are more likely to drink
Period: in the 1960’s people (population level) drank more alcohol due to introduction
of alcohol at large scale at the market
Cohort: for people who were young in the 2010’s, the realization came that alcohol is
bad particularly for young people (think of: brain damage, school dropout). Norms
stay with you during the rest of your life
How to separate them?
Consider research methods and their limitations
o Cross-sectional
o Longitudinal
o Sequential
Example: smoking weed
Age: you smoke more weed as you get older
Cohort: for people who were young in the 1970’s (born in the 60’s), it was common to
smoke weed. This cohort keeps a favorable attitude towards weed during their entire
lifetime (once a hippie, always a hippie)
To conclude if there is a period effect you need to conduct longitudinal research. You need to
know something about before the event and data from after the event. If there is a period
effect, all generations would be effected
Lecture 1 – age, period and cohort effects – 12-09-22
Why focus on youth?
Adolescence/young adulthood most formative important life phase (both at an individual &
societal/cohort level):
Transition to adulthood (education, job, relationship, family formation)
Young people are most open to change and innovation (seismographic function for
future trends in society)
Most change comes from young people
Gender equality, sexual freedom, climate change (Greta Thunberg)
The generational approach (share same specific characteristics)
Baby boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1979), Millennials (1980-1994)
The age limits are established based on research, based on which age groups have similar
ideas or ideals
The millennial cohort
Technology
Diversity (immigration, gender)
Apolitical
Unaffiliated, anti-hierarchical, distrustful
Upbeat / optimistic
What happens during adolescence stays with you during adult life (so the generation
characteristics will still be with you if you are 80 for example)
Music that you heard in high school, stays with you and your peers. Is a strong characteristic
of your generation
Our generation (iGen / Generation Z)
COVID-19
Terrorist attacks
Vlogging (earn money)
Quick access to (fake) information
Smartphones
Conspiracy theories
Election of Barack Obama (first black president)
Trump
Mh17 (airplane that was shot down by Russia (accidently))
Youth as an independent phase in the life course
Transitions in the youth phase
Exit childhood – entrance adulthood. In between is the youth phase
, 19th century: industrialization, expanded public education, urbanization adolescence was
born
Since then the youth phase has been extended
‘The adolescent stage has long seemed to me one of the most fascinating of all themes. These
years are the best decade of life… It is a state from which some of the bad, but far more of the
good qualities of life and mind arise.’ G. Stanley Hall (1904): scientific study of adolescence
So the adolescent stage is the phase where they flourish and grow (unlike how the media
presents adolescents ‘de jeugd van tegenwoordig’ smoking and drinking)
Women are able to have children earlier (earlier menarche (first menstruation)), but they have
children later and later. The mean age is nowadays over 30 years old (because of studying and
job)
Studying youth transitions
APC – analysis
A (age): something happens because you get older (menarche (between 10 & 14 years
old); voting (18 years old))
P (period): historical event affecting everybody (war)
C (cohort): event especially affects a particular age-group/cohort (=people who are
born in the same historical period; they have particular characteristics and move
through history together (hippies – weed)
Are 60-year-olds more liberal compared to 20-year-olds towards weed because they used to
be hippies (cohort) or because of age effect (how older, the more liberal)?
Example: drinking alcohol
Age: as you get older, you are more likely to drink
Period: in the 1960’s people (population level) drank more alcohol due to introduction
of alcohol at large scale at the market
Cohort: for people who were young in the 2010’s, the realization came that alcohol is
bad particularly for young people (think of: brain damage, school dropout). Norms
stay with you during the rest of your life
How to separate them?
Consider research methods and their limitations
o Cross-sectional
o Longitudinal
o Sequential
Example: smoking weed
Age: you smoke more weed as you get older
Cohort: for people who were young in the 1970’s (born in the 60’s), it was common to
smoke weed. This cohort keeps a favorable attitude towards weed during their entire
lifetime (once a hippie, always a hippie)
To conclude if there is a period effect you need to conduct longitudinal research. You need to
know something about before the event and data from after the event. If there is a period
effect, all generations would be effected
