ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the cohort members’ lives to an examination of their views and actions at the age of 26. The opinion statements help the authors to gain an overall picture of the climate of opinion among the cohort members, and some insights into changes since the 1991 survey of 33-year-olds. A final feature of the climate of opinion is the importance cohort members attached to particular issues. By the age of 26, one in five of the men and one in three of the women in the 1970 cohort had become parents. The social attitudes we have considered so far may be seen as a reflection of the social part of the cohort members’ identities, i.e. how they represent themselves to other people. Cohort members classified as at home or permanently sick or disabled expressed the least interest in politics and, together with the unemployed, the least willingness to vote.
