Personal Values
studentPOLL: Research dispels Millennial theories
3. A sizable segment of Millennial students strongly agree that they are more interested in money and wealth and less likely to want to help others in need than their parents' generation.
studentPOLL specifically asked students to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement (on a scale of 1–5 with 5 being "strongly agree" and 1 being "strongly disagree") with a series of statements about their generation versus their parents' generation. For example, we asked students whether their generation "is more interested in money and wealth" or "more likely to want to help people less fortunate than themselves" than their parents' generation.
Conventional Millennial theory suggests that this generation of students is less interested in "having a lot of money" and more interested in "making a contribution to society." studentPOLL's and CIRP's findings lead to very different conclusions.
Over the last 30 years, the CIRP Freshman Survey data shows that "being well off financially" has remained a top personal goal for nearly three in four college freshmen, with no changes among Millennials. In fact, CIRP notes that "much of the growth in the percentage of students who rate highly the importance of being well off financially occurred from 1966 to 1987 (from 42.2 percent to 74.1 percent) and has remained fairly stable since then."
Similarly, studentPOLL's Millennial findings revealed that 47 percent of students strongly agreed (giving a rating of 5 on a scale of 1–5) that their generation is "more interested in money and wealth" than their parents' generation. Only 3 percent of students indicated that they did not agree at all with this statement. (Chart 4)
While only 9 percent of students strongly agreed that their generation is more likely than their parents' generation to want to help people less fortunate than themselves, CIRP data provide a more complete picture. While 67 percent of students in 1977 reported that "helping others who are in difficulty" was "essential" or "very important" to them, this figure hovered in the mid-60s for many years and then climbed to 70 percent in 2007—the highest it has been in the last 20 years, suggesting as CIRP explains in its Forty Year Trend report that there appears to be a "resurgent interest in altruistic values" among college freshmen. In other words, Millennial levels of social altruism have become more similar to those of their parents' generation.
4. Raising a family tops the list of life objectives that are "essential" or "very important" to Millennials—even more so than their parents' generation.
Family values, it seems, still matter as much to Millennials as they did to their parents' generation. In 2007, 77 percent of the 272,000 students surveyed by CIRP nationwide indicated that "raising a family" was an "essential" or "very important" life objective to them. In 1977, by comparison, 59 percent of students gave the same level of importance to raising a family, although this figure has remained relatively constant since the early 1990s.
Millennials and previous generations show the greatest difference in the personal or professional objectives they deem "essential" or "important" with regard to:
- Becoming an authority in my field (77 percent in 1977 compared to 59 percent of students in 2007)
- Influencing social values (32 percent in 1977 compared to 44 percent in 2007), which seems to reflect the growing importance to students of community service (26.8 percent of students in 2006 indicated there was a "very good chance" they would participate in such activities in college compared to 16.9 percent of college freshmen when CIRP first asked the question in 1990).
Given the "green" revolution and growing interest in sustainability on college campuses, it is not surprising that "becoming involved in programs to clean up the environment" is "very important" or "essential" to an increasing percentage of students—up 7 percent among students over the last decade. However, CIRP data show Millennials' growing interest in the environment appears to be on a par with their parents' interest a generation ago when the world energy crisis, the beginning of Earth Day, the creation of the EPA, and other events strongly influenced their opinions. (Chart 5)
| Chart 5: Objectives Considered Essential or Very Important to Students | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 1983 | 1989 | 1992 | 1997 | 2004 | 2007 | |
| Raising a family | 59% | 68% | 70% | 72% | 75% | 75% | 77% |
| Being very well off financially | 56% | 69% | 74% | 71% | 73% | 74% | 74% |
| Helping others who are in difficulty | 67% | 65% | 61% | 65% | 64% | 62% | 70% |
| Becoming an authority in my field | 77% | 75% | 68% | 70% | 65% | 58% | 59% |
| Obtaining recognition from my colleagues for contributions to my special field | 50% | 58% | 57% | 58% | 55% | 52% | 56% |
| Developing a meaningful philosophy of life | 63% | 48% | 44% | 49% | 45% | 42% | 49% |
| Influencing social values | 32% | 32% | 43% | 46% | 39% | 38% | 44% |
| Becoming successful in a business of my own | 46% | 49% | 50% | 41% | 39% | 41% | 42% |
| Having administrative responsibility for the work of others | 34% | 41% | 46% | 41% | 39% | 39% | 42% |
| Keeping up to date with political affairs | 45% | 41% | 44% | 45% | 30% | 34% | 37% |
| Becoming involved in programs to clean up the environment | 30% | 21% | 27% | 35% | 20% | 18% | 27% |
Source: The American Freshman: Forty Year Trends and The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2007, CIRP
5. Millennials say they are more likely to use profanity, wear suggestive clothing, and take risks compared to their parents' generation.
Our findings appear to contradict some of the hypotheses of Millennial-theory proponents, namely that the Millennial generation is less likely to wear suggestive clothing, use profanity, and take risks than their Boomer parents. A sizable segment of students surveyed indicated that they strongly agreed (giving a rating of 5 on a 1–5 point scale) that their generation, compared to their parents generation:
- Is more likely to use profanity (51 percent strongly agreed)
- Is more likely to wear suggestive clothing (44 percent strongly agreed)
- Is more likely to live with someone without getting married (44 percent strongly agreed)
- Is more likely to take risks (44 percent strongly agreed)
studentPOLL published by the College Board and Art & Science Group, LLC. Copyright © 2008 The College Board and Art & Science Group.