Millennial Generation Annotated Bibliography

Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A., & Zickuhr, K. (2010). Social Media & Mobile Internet Use among Teens and Young Adults. Millennials. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from

  • Our generation is called the millennials
  • 73% of “wired” American teens use social media
  • 81% of adults 18-29 are internet users
  • 93% of teens 12-17 use the internet
  • This source offers many useful statistics about the technology usage of each age group

Howe, N., & Strauss, W. (2007). Millennials go to college. LifeCourse Associates Great Falls, VA. Retrieved from

  • Millennial generation, defined as being born 1982 to the present
  • Millennials have driven down teen suicide rates, teen pregnancy and abortion, violent crime and drug use among teens.
  • More focus is being put on children than ever before
  • Millennial generation is team-oriented, optimistic, high achieving, follows rules
  • Millennial cohort is at 80 million, could go up to 100 million which is a third larger than baby boom cohort
  • This generation is most racially and ethnically diverse
  • This article covers the “7 core traits of the Millennial Generation” which include: special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional, pressured, and achieving
  • Graduation and beyond, and implications for higher education

DeBard, R. (2004). Millennials coming to college. New Directions for Student Services, 2004(106), 33–45. doi:10.1002/ss.123

  • Millennial generation is the most diverse
  • This article also covers the 7 traits of the Millennial generation
  • discusses specific generational values, and how they differ from other other generations
  • Millennial students expect high grades as a way of validating their achievement, however they only do what is expected of them to achieve that outcome
  • Students have been growing increasingly optimistic about their chances for academic success in college
  • CIRP survey found that percentage of students who devote six or more hours per week to homework declined to an all time low of 33.4% compared to 47% in 1987
  • 47% of first year college students have a job tohelp pay for their college education
  • In general, this generation is more ambitious -“compared to students just five or six years ago, today’s freshmen are more academically optimistic, service-oriented, and politically engaged.”

Deal, J. J., Altman, D. G., & Rogelberg, S. G. (2010). Millennials at Work: What We Know and What We Need to Do (If Anything). Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 191–199. doi:10.1007/s10869-010-9177-2

  • Higher rates of self esteem and assertiveness
  • Report higher rates of job satisfaction
  • We need more time to tell if this generation will be fundamentally impacted by increased technology/social media use
  • Millennials are more overweight and less fit than generation X
  • Millennials are entering college in record numbers but have lower scores on general knowledge