Mal Fletcher comments

Generations are like individuals: they pass through phases, from childhood, to rising adulthood, to middle age, to elder-status. Each generation possesses its own 'personality', which is shaped in part by the experiences of its childhood and youth. In a similar way, understanding a generation's 'personality', can help us project ahead to discover something of its future influence.

Of course, when we talk about generational traits we are by definition generalising. Yet those generalisations are important, for they help us ascertain need, aspiration and ambition.

GenXers were, by and large, born at a time in Western history when having children was all-too-often seen as something to be endured rather than enjoyed.

Many of their parents, especially the older Boomers, were either too obsessed with getting ahead, or too preoccupied with the angst of their own relationships to share life in any meaningful way with the generation emerging around them. It's worth remembering that it was during the 80s that the notion of substituting 'quality time' for 'quantity time' with children took off.

As a result, Generation X became in some ways the least parentally nurtured generation in recent history. (It was certainly the most aborted.)

There were no Toys R Us megastores when these kids were small and no Potteresque book industries aimed just at them and their needs. There were certainly no special designations to describe their passage from childhood to adulthood, as had been the case with the Boomers and the new word 'teenager'.

It's perhaps not surprising then that the Relate poll found them citing damaged relationships as a major point of concern in their lives. Around 20% felt that they were closer to friends than family - and a quarter wished they had more time for family.

This is a generation for whom nurturing and bonding is vital. The TV series Friends remained number one in the US for much of the 90s because GenXers made it so. For them, finding and maintaining nurturing relationships has been a key aspiration.

Perhaps in some unconscious way this was behind the relative ease with which Cameron and Clegg negotiated their way to a coalition. This surely would never have happened under the auspices of their Boomer forebears.

It is also not surprising that some of their seniors find them, in the words of one corporate headhunter, 'pushy, ambitious and battling hard to reach the top.' If the only way to get noticed in a world of Boomer power structures is to make waves, then waves will be made.

Various studies, including the Relate survey, suggest that GenXers are often more liberal in their attitudes than Boomers - or the Millennials who follow them. Again, a part of this may be attributed to parenting.

The parents of many GenXers were quintessential children of the 60s; wary of ethical absolutes, morally disorientated or too self-occupied to help their kids wrestle with thorny questions. This wasn't the case in either the Cameron or the Miliband households - which in itself may say something about what it takes to get to the top - but it was the case for many of their peers.

Another reason for more liberal attitudes may also be the rapid pace of change, particularly through technological advance. This was truly the first generation of whom it might be said, 'the only constant was change itself.'

As a result, Generation X is the 'whatever' generation, where personal and social mores are as much in transition as technology; morality and ethics may be interpreted in purely subjective and pragmatic ways. But 'whatever' is a sigh of resignation, not a cry for revolution; it suggests a weariness with options, a drive to rediscover some firm, common ground.