Title

Time Allocation Behavior of 20th Century American Generations: GI Generation, Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials

Time

1:40pm - 3:00pm

Location

1605 Tilia, Room 1103, West Village

Abstract

In the recent years, time engagement behaviors of two generations, namely Baby Boomers and Millennials have sparked much interest because these generations constitute the bulk of the American population today and they also exhibit “atypical” activity-travel patterns compared to other generations. The objective of the current research is to conduct a systematic study of the time engagement behaviors of five American generations, namely, GI Generation (birth year: 1901-1924), Silent generation (birth year: 1925 – 1943), Baby Boomers (birth year: 1944 – 1964), the Generation X (birth year: 1965 – 1981) and Millennials (birth year: 1982 -2000). Particularly, the study aims at isolating heterogeneity in behaviors associated with structural changes in the society from those associated with inherent generational characteristics. Using data from four waves (1965, 1985, 2005 and 2012) of the American Heritage and Time Use Study (AHTUS), the analysis explored the time engagement behaviors while accounting for the age, period and cohort effects in addition to different socio-economic and demographic variables. The analysis revealed that, Millennials have generally delayed the participation into life changing events such as marriage, workforce entry, and exhibited prolonged student status compared to previous generations. Millennials showed lower participation in work and higher participation in discretionary activities compared to individuals of the same age group from previous generations. On the other hand, Baby Boomers clearly exhibited increased travel engagement compared to the previous generations at different stages of their lives.

Biographical Sketch

Annesha Enam completed her undergraduate and master’s degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2008 and 2010 respectively. She has served as a lecturer at the same university from 2008 to 2012. Dr. Enam completed her doctoral studies from University of Connecticut (UConn), USA in activity and travel behavior modeling. Dr. Enam’s dissertation research has been awarded the 2017 CUTC Charley V. Wootan Memorial Award by the Council of University Transportation Centers in the USA. Dr. Enam’s research interest include econometric modeling of choice behavior, activity time use and well-being, transportation planning, use of data mining and machine learning methodologies for understanding choice behavior as well as understanding transportation safety issues. Currently Dr. Enam is working as a postdoctoral appointee at Argonne National Laboratory where she is working on travel behavior modeling with focus to emerging and disruptive technologies.