The 8 Greatest Strengths of Generation Y - Online College
"We children of the 80s began life in the "me" generation, and we came of age in the "we" generation of the Internet. Our unique place in history has shaped our character in many ways, for better and worse. Here are eight of the greatest strengths of Generation Y-ers."

Boomerang Generation

The Boomerang Generation: Feeling OK about Living with Mom and Dad - Kim Parker 
(Pew Research Center, 2012)
This generation of young adults has sometimes been labeled the "boomerang generation" for its proclivity to move out of the family home for a time and then come right back. About a quarter (24%) of all young adults age 18 to 34 say they have moved back in with their parents in recent years (after living on their own for a time) because of economic conditions. More than three-quarters of them say they are satisfied with their living arrangements and upbeat about their financial futures. One reason for this upbeat view may be that living with parents has become such a widespread phenomenon.
(Source: www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/03/15/the-boomerang-generation)

The Surprising Benefits of ‘Boomerang Kids’ - Katherine Newman
http://ideas.time.com/2012/02/23/the-surprising-benefits-of-boomerang-kids/#ixzz1rMS22d00

Boomerang Kids: When College Grads Move Back Home - A Video Interview with Katherine Newman
www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2012/02/boomerang-kids-when-college-gr.html

"Introduction" to The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition - Katherine S. Newman 
Go to Beacon Press

College Students

Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students' Inner Lives - Alexander Astin, Helen Astin, & Jennifer Lindholm (Jossey-Bass, 2011)
(http://cultivatingthespirit.com)
Cultivating the Spirit is based on a national study of undergraduates. Findings show that religious engagement among students declines somewhat during college, but their spirituality shows substantial growth. Students become more caring, more tolerant, more connected with others, and more actively engaged in a spiritual quest. The study identified a number of college activities that contribute to students’ spiritual growth. The authors also found that spiritual growth enhances other outcomes, such as academic performance, psychological well-being, leadership development, and satisfaction with college. Cultivating the Spirit also incorporates findings from a national survey of faculty along with insights gleaned through interviews with students and professors.

• To learn more about the Spirituality in Higher Education project visit: www.spirituality.ucla.edu.
  
• Read "Attending to Students' Inner Lives," which explores the implications of Cultivating the Spirit. 
• Read "How Spiritual Traits Enhance Students' Lives—and Maybe Their Grades." 

Young Adult Drop-Outs

Five Myths about Young Adult Church Dropouts - Barna Research
The Barna Group team spent much of the last five years exploring the lives of young people who drop out of church. The research provides many insights into the spiritual journeys of teens and young adults. The findings are revealed extensively in a new book called, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church…and Rethinking Faith. The research uncovered five myths and realities about today's young dropouts.

Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church - Barna Research
Many parents and church leaders wonder how to most effectively cultivate durable faith in the lives of young people. A five-year project headed by Barna Group president David Kinnaman explores the opportunities and challenges of faith development among teens and young adults within a rapidly shifting culture. The findings of the research are included in a new book by Kinnaman titled You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Church. The research project was comprised of eight national studies, including interviews with teenagers, young adults, parents, youth pastors, and senior pastors. The study of young adults focused on those who were regular churchgoers Christian church during their teen years and explored their reasons for disconnection from church life after age 15. No single reason dominated the break-up between church and young adults. Instead, a variety of reasons emerged. Overall, the research uncovered six significant themes why nearly three out of every five young Christians (59%) disconnect either permanently or for an extended period of time from church life after age 15.

Book: You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church...And Rethinking Faith - David Kinnaman (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011)
Millions of young Christians are disconnecting from church as they transition into adulthood. Now the bestselling coauthor of unChristian reveals the results of a new nationwide study of 18- to 29-year-olds with a Christian background. Discover why so many are disengaging from the faith community, renew your hope for how God is at work in the next generation. You Lost Me exposes ways the Christian community has failed to equip young adults to live "in but not of" the world - to follow Christ in the midst of profound cultural change. This wide-ranging study debunks persistent myths about young dropouts and examines the likely consequences for young adults and for the church if we maintain the status quo. The faith journeys of the next generation are a challenge to the established church, but they can also be a source of hope for the community of faith. Kinnaman, with the help of contributors from across the Christian spectrum, offers ideas to pass on a vibrant, lasting faith, and ideas for young adults to find themselves in wholehearted pursuit of Christ.

• Go to Baker Books
  
• Video Introduction
  

Video: Prodigals, Nomads, and Exiles - David Kinnaman
(Q Ideas, www.qideas.org)
No previous generation has experienced such dramatic, compounded cultural change. With that as the backdrop, the faith journeys of the next generation are playing themselves out. Millions are cutting their connection to church—and even their faith—during their young adult years. Kinnaman will describe the three types of spiritual journeys that young people take, how their anti-institutional mindset is different than that of young adults in the past and how organizations and churches could respond effectively to today’s prodigals, nomads and exiles.

The Rise of the Exiles - David Kinnaman
You Lost Me, describes three ways people get “lost” on the journey of faith: 1) Prodigals disavow their faith entirely, ripping up their faith roots to become ex-Christians; 2) Nomads wander from the institutional church and put all of their church connections and relationships on ice; and 3) Exiles feel that their faith does not fit in the world they inhabit. They feel stuck between the comfortable, predictable world of faith and the culture that they hope to influence. prodigals and nomads are on spiritual journeys that occur during every generation and in every type of civilization. Exiles appear only in certain periods of time and only within specific contexts. Exiles live in times that are discontinuously different than their predecessors. In other words, the exiles’ spiritual journeys only happen in the midst of profound cultural change. Because of the profound social, technological, and spiritual conditions in our culture today, it is clear to me that the modern-day exiles will be the ones who significantly shape the future and experience of Christianity. We must recognize the signs of the times.
(Source: www.qideas.org/blog/the-rise-of-exiles.aspx)

Research Website

Who Are Emerging Adults? - Changing SEA Project
The Changing SEA website has 15 essays (see below) on a range of topics related to the lives of emerging adults, written by highly regarded scholars, which synthesize an array of academic articles, summarizing key points and making them accessible and useful for your ministry. 

• To read and download the articles go to: www.changingsea.org/papersyn.htm. 
  

1. Emerging Adult Participation in Congregations - 
Conrad Hackett,
   
2. Engaging Emerging Adults in Civic - 
Casey Clevenger and 
Wendy Cadge
   
3. Faith and Spirituality Among Emerging Adults 
- Penny Edgell
   
4. Friends and Friendships in Emerging Adulthood - 
Carolyn McNamara Barry and 
Stephanie D. Madse
   
5. Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality Among Emerging Adults - 
Annette Mahoney
   
6. Media in the Lives of Young Adults: Implications for Religious Organizations 
- Jill Dierberg and 
Lynn Schofield Clark
   
7. Mental Health in Emerging Adulthood - 
Jennifer L. Tanner
   
8. Money and Debt Issues of Emerging Adults - 
Joan Gray Anderson and 
Barbara M. Newman
   
9. Old School, New School, No School: Changing Paths Into, 
Through, and Out of College - 
Elizabeth M. Lee
   
10. Racial and Ethnic Dynamics Among Contemporary Young Adults - 
Gerardo Marti 
    
11. Refashioning Family in the 21st Century: Marriage and Cohabitation -  
John P. Bartkowski and 
Xiaohe Xu
    
12. Sex in Emerging Adulthood: A Decade in the Sexual Gap 
- Marla E. Eisenberg
    
13. Sexual Behavior in Young Adulthood 
- Mark D. Regnerus
    
14. Trends in Political and Civic Behavior in Emerging Adults - 
James Youniss and 
Hugh McIntosh
    
15. Work and Careers 
- Penny Edgell

Research

A Congregation of One - Jeffrey Arnett
Religious beliefs and practices were examined among 140 emerging adults aged 21 to 28, using quantitative and qualitative methods. There was great diversity in the importance they ascribed to religion, in their attendance at religious services, and in the content of their religious beliefs. Overall, their beliefs fell into four roughly even categories—agnostic/atheist, deist, liberal Christian, and conservative Christian.  The results showed that the participants’ beliefs were highly individualized, that there was little relationship between childhood religious socialization and current religious attendance or beliefs, and that the participants were often skeptical of religious institutions. 
(Source: www.jeffreyarnett.com)

A Portrait of Generation Next (2007) - Pew Research
This report takes stock of Generation Next, aged 18-25 years old. The report is divided into four main sections: (1) Outlook and World View, (2) Technology and Lifestyle, (3) Politics and Policy, and (4) Values and Social Issues.
(Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, http://people-press.org/report/300/a-portrait-of-generation-next)

A Profile of U.S. Emerging Adults (2007) - Rubén G. Rumbaut and Golnaz Komaie
This report sketches a detailed profile of young adults in the United States in the first years of the 21st century: How many young adults are there in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 34? What are their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics? What percent of them have “completed” any or all of the conventional milestones marking normative transitions into adulthood? Does the timing and sequencing of these transitions differ for young men and women? Do they differ by class, “race,” ethnicity, nativity, or generation? How does the “early-transition” cohort among young adults (ages 18-24)—the most vulnerable during this period of the life course—compare to older cohorts (ages 25-29 or 30-34)?
(Network on Transitions to Adulthood Research Network, www.transad.pop.upenn.edu)

American Millennials: Generations Apart Religion - Marist Millennial Poll 
The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion conducted a survey of Americans, and specifically American Millennials, young adults ages 18 to 29. The research report presents a profile and comparison of the spirituality of Americans and Millennials. The study examines the moral values, world views, religious experiences, and social issues that are important to each of them.
(Source: http://maristpoll.marist.edu/american-millennials)
(Source: www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/news/polls/index.html)

Catholic Identity among Young Adults - Dean Hoge
This report describes how Catholic young adults differ from previous generations, and it predicts that they will tend to maintain their basic values as they grow older. Compared with older Catholics today, they will uphold greater individual authority in religious and moral decisions and will desire more lay influence in institutional decisionmaking. They will tend to distinguish faith in God from obeying the rules of the institutional Church, clinging more to the former than to the latter. 
(Source: Catholic Studies Research, http://catholicstudiesresearch.net)

The Challenge of Emerging Adulthood - Christian Smith
There is a new and important stage in life in American culture, and it is not entirely clear that the Christian church understands or particularly knows what to do with it. I am talking about what scholars call "emerging adulthood." This is the time of life between ages 18 and 30, roughly, a phase which in recent decades has morphed into quite a new experience for many. Researchers in sociology, psychology, and human development have been investigating the contours of this new life stage and have recently published some fascinating books on the subject, whose findings are well worth pondering for their implications for church and culture.
(Source: Christianity Today, Nov/Dec 2007, www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/novdec/2.10.html)

The Changing Nature of Young Adulthood - Elizabeth Fussell & Frank Furstenberg
This is a summary briefing of research findings. 
(Network on Transitions to Adulthood Research Network, www.transad.pop.upenn.edu)

Expressive Communalism: The Embodied Spirituality of Post-Boomer Generations - Richard Flory and Donald Miller
This article describes the key concept of "expressive communalism" in the faith and spirituality of young adults, which emerged from the research of Flory and Miller and is presented in their book, Finding Faith: The Spiritual Quest of the Post-Boomer Generation (Rutgers University Press). 
(Source: Congregations, Fall 2004, Number 4, The Alban Institute, www.alban.org)

Millennials: Confident, Connected, Open to Change (2010) - Pew Research
This Pew Research Center report profiles the roughly 50 million Millennials, ages 18 to 29. The report examines their demographics; their political and social values; their lifestyles and life priorities; their digital technology and social media habits; and their economic and educational aspirations. The report also compares and contrasts Millennials with the nation's three other living generations - Gen Xers (ages 30 to 45), Baby Boomers (ages 46 to 64) and Silents (ages 65 and older). Whenever the trend data permit, we compare the four generations as they all are now - and also as older generations were at the ages that adult Millennials are now. 
(Source: Pew Research Center, Social & Demographic Trends, http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/751/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change)

Millennial Faith - USA Today
This April 2010 USA Today article provides an overview of the Lifeway Research Study.

Millennials Are Spiritually Diverse - Lifeway Research
Two-thirds of American "Millennials" – those born between 1980 and 1991 – call themselves Christian, but far fewer pray or read the Bible daily, attend weekly worship services, or hold to historical positions on the Bible and its teachings. These are the findings from a wide-ranging August 2009 LifeWay Research study of 1,200 Millennials in the United States. This article summarizes the major conclusions from the study. 
(Source: www.lifeway.com)

• PowerPoint Presentation - Overview of Millennial Research from Lifeway Research
  

Millennials and Family - Lifeway Research
When asked what’s important in life, most American “Millennials” – those born between 1980 and 1991 – say family comes first, ahead of friends, education, careers and even religion. That’s the finding of LifeWay Research based on a wide-ranging August 2009 survey of 1,200 Millennials in the United States.
(Source: www.lifeway.com)

• PowerPoint Presentation - Overview of Millennial & Family Research from Lifeway Research
  

Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next - Tom Ferrick Jr. 
This article by Tom Ferrick presents the story and key findings in the Pew Research Center’s in-depth survey of a new generation of 18- to 29-year-olds, which found them confident, self-expressive, upbeat and open to change. (The entire study can be found in the research list below.)
(Source: Trust, Fall 2010)

Myths and Realities of Emerging Adults - Jeffrey Arnett
Many myths about adolescence have been refuted by research, but similar myths have grown up in recent years around emerging adulthood. This essay addresses three of those myths: the claim that they suffer from a normative “crisis”; the accusations that they are “selfish”; and their alleged reluctance to “grow up” and become adults. For each issue, evidence is presented showing that the myths exaggerate or falsify the true experience of emerging adults.
(Source: www.jeffreyarnett.com)

On the Frontier of Adulthood - Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., Rubén G. Rumbaut, and Richard A. Settersten, Jr.
This is a summary briefing of research findings. 
(Network on Transitions to Adulthood Research Network, www.transad.pop.upenn.edu)

Religion among the Millennials (2010) - Pew Research
By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans. Fewer young adults belong to any particular faith than older people do today. They also are less likely to be affiliated than their parents' and grandparents' generations were when they were young. Fully one-in-four members of the Millennial generation are unaffiliated with any particular faith. This research report explores the degree to which the religious characteristics and social views of young adults differ from those of older people today, as well as how Millennials compare with previous generations when they were young.
(Pew Research Center, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1494/millennials-less-religious-in-practice-but-beliefs-quite-traditional)

Religious Idealism: Serving Others in the Name of Faith - Laurie Occhipinti
Mission trips are acts of spiritual agency as well as vehicles of faith. In that sense, service mediates between a personal and a collective sense of social purpose and moral responsibility. Based on interviews with returned and prospective mission participants, this article looks at how mission participants develop faith in the light of engaging with others, with self, and with God. This paper focuses on short-term missions as a ritual and the consequences that this experience has for student participants. 
(Source: Practical Matters, 2009, http://practicalmattersjournal.org/issue_toc/2)

Social Media and Young Adults 2010 - Pew Research
This report brings together recent findings about internet and social media use among young adults by situating it within comparable data for adolescents and adults older than 30. 
(Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social‐Media‐and‐Young‐Adults.aspx) 

Theory of Emerging Adulthood - Jeffrey Arnett 
Emerging adulthood is proposed as a new conception of development for the period from the late teens through the twenties, with a focus on ages 18-25. A theoretical background is presented, Then evidence is provided to support the idea that emerging adulthood is a distinct period demographically, subjectively, and in terms of identity explorations. How emerging adulthood differs from adolescence and young adulthood is explained. Finally, a cultural context for the idea of emerging adulthood is outlined, and it is specified that emerging adulthood exists only in cultures that allow young people a prolonged period of independent role exploration during the late teens and twenties.
(Source: www.jeffreyarnett.com)

Transition to Adulthood - The Future of Children, Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 2010
The Future of Children, Princeton-Brookings (www.futureofchildhood.org)
The issue of the Future of Children journal explores the sharply revised schedule for coming of age in the United States and more broadly throughout the industrialized world. Over the past decade there has been a growing body of research showing that young people are taking longer to leave home, attain economic independence, and form families of their own than did their peers half a century ago. This issue explores the issues and forces behind the transition to adulthood. Articles in the journal include: 

• What’s Going on with Young People Today? The Long and Twisting Path to Adulthood by Richard A. Settersten Jr. and Barbara Ray 
  
• Immigration and Adult Transitions by Rubén G. Rumbaut and Golnaz Komaie 
  
• On a New Schedule: Transitions to Adulthood and Family Change by Frank F. Furstenberg Jr. 
  
• Civic Engagement and the Transition to Adulthood by Constance Flanagan and Peter Levine 
  
• Vulnerable Populations and the Transition to Adulthood by D. Wayne Osgood, E. Michael Foster, and Mark E. Courtney 

Young Adult Catholics: Believing, Belonging, Serving - Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University
On February 6, 2007, the Woodstock Theological Center sponsored a two-part forum titled, “Young Adult Catholics: Believing, Belonging, and Serving.” The report includes empirical research presented at the forum, and a variety of pastoral perspectives on young adults. 
(Source: Woodstock Theological Center, www.woodstock.georgetown.edu)