ARE today's teens in a panic about climate change and happy to hang out with their parents, whilst pensioners think plastic recycling and global warming are just silly modern hysteria?
Worldwide research on our perspectives depending upon when we were born has been carried out in 40 countries, with a stratified sample – that is, specifically designed to reflect a microcosm of current society - of nearly 30,000 people, and the results for Spain have sufficed to blow some commonly-held notions out of the water.
Here's how.
Who and how
WIN International, a leading global association in the field of market research and opinion studies, commissioned the report Perspectives on Life Between Generations over last year, and it has just been published – with some surprising conclusions.
For Spain, the survey was conducted by the DYM Institute, based in Barcelona and with a branch in Madrid – if you're keen to have your views included in their findings in the future, you can fill in a questionnaire with your details on their website so they can contact you next time they're sounding out society – via 1,017 online interviews back in November 2019.
Respondents were divided into the internationally-recognised generational categories, rather than those specific to a given country – as an example, 'Baby Boomers' are widely held to be those born in the 18 years after World War II, or from 1946 to 1964, even though in many countries no such explosion of childbirth occurred at that time; in fact, Spain's 'Baby Boom' generation is mainly those born in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The DYM Institute then worked out the main character traits for each generation as an overall introduction, some of which appear fitting, and others of which may shock those of a similar age group, but which do seem to include traits that would have been in keeping with the socio-cultural and economic climate during their childhood.
Tell me when you were born and we'll tell you what you're like
Although, in theory, encompassing a couple of generations, the oldest segment studied was those born in or before 1945 – which, in Spain, would include people born in the 1910s, given that the country has a high population of residents aged well past 100.
Research methodology here may have led to a reduced participant group, however, which may make the findings a little generalised: Being an online survey, those aged 74 and over at the time (at the very youngest, 73 and 10 months) may be less likely to use the internet than much younger participants, meaning fewer responses.
Known as the Pre-1946 Generation for the purposes of the study, although often referred to as the Great Generation, these people were found to be slow to adapt to the modern world.
Whether they were born during a major war or just as the last one was finishing, they are likely to have grown up with shortages, rationing and stockpiling; particularly in Spain where the Civil War from 1936-9 was followed by 35 years of dictatorship, with widespread poverty and hunger at least in the first couple of decades.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com