Lives of women and men active in the social protests of the 1960s: a longitudinal study.

This study found that 46 of 116 children from the R. R. Sears, E. E. Maccoby, and H. Levin (1957) child-rearing study classified at age 31 as participants in the protest movements of the 1960s came more often from middle-class families and attained higher educational levels than their counterparts who did not participate in the protests. In midlife, activists remained more rebellious and altruistic than their peers of equivalent education. Sixties activists did better in grade school and had positive permissive parents at age 5. Parenting style was associated with doing well in school only in girls. As adults, female activists were less involved in family life and had better jobs than their peers. Male activists did less well occupationally and were less happy than their male peers or the female activists.