DID GROWING UP IN THE 1960s LEAVE A PERMANENT MARK ON ATTITUDES AND VALUES?

This paper explores the "tree ring" hypothesis that reaching young adulthood during certain historical periods raises or lowers attitudes above and beyond the contribution of demographic variables and long-term cohort trends. It examines the deviations from long-term, linear, cohort trends for twenty-eight National Opinion Research Center (NORC) General Social Survey (GSS) attitude items in birth cohorts reaching age 16 in the 1950s, 1960s, and post-1960s. Long-term cohort trends are estimated from regressions of attitudes on cohorts reaching age 16 from 1917 to 1950 (net of year and five demographics). Popular impressions are supported in that "rings" (residuals) are more liberal for Americans reaching age 16 in the 1960s. However, those reaching age 16 in the l950s are more liberal than their immediate predecessors, not more conservative. Furthermore, the three periods are not strikingly distinctive as the items showing positive rings tend to be the same in each period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]