(p. 6A) “I was shocked,” said Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University who is one of the study’s authors.
. . .
Researchers found that, when surveyed decades ago, about a third of young baby boomers said it was important to become personally involved in programs to clean up the environment. In comparison, only about a quarter of young Gen Xers – and 21 percent of Millennials – said the same.
Meanwhile, 15 percent of Millennials said they had made no effort to help the environment, compared with 8 percent of young Gen Xers and 5 percent of young baby boomers.
. . .
The analysis was based on two long-term surveys of the nation’s youth. The first, the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future project, is an annual survey of thousands of high school seniors, from which data from 1976 through 2008 was used.
Other data came from the American Freshman project, another large annual national survey, administered by the Higher Education Research Institute. Those responses came from thousands of first-year college students, from the years 1966 through 2009. Because of the large sample sizes, the margin of error was less than plus-or-minus half a percentage point.
For the full story, see:
MARTHA IRVINE. “‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ Not a Mantra for Young People.” Omaha World-Herald (Sat., March 17, 2012): 6A.
(Note: ellipses added.)
(Note: the online version of the article was dated Thursday March 15, 2012 and had the title “Study: Young people not so ‘green’ after all.”)