Frustration tolerance differences among Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials

Introduction and objectives: Modern society consists of five generations with differential cultural characteristics, which lead to the assumption of differences in frustration tolerance among them. Frustration tolerance is an essential concept in cognitive-behavioral model. The objective of this research was to compare frustration tolerance among three generations: Baby Boomer, X and Millennials. Material and methods: Participated 909 people; 192 belonging to Baby Boomers generation, 310 to X generation and 407 were Millennials. The Frustration Tolerance Scale was used, it has 4 dimensions: personal, social, labor and family. Scores were not normally distributed, thus nonparametric tests were used. Results: The correlation between age and frustration tolerance is weak, although significant, which is attributed to the sample size (rs = .132; p = .001). The correlations between age and frustration tolerance in each generational group were not significant. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed a significant difference among three generation when frustration tolerance was compared. Using Mann-Whitney U test an equivalence between Generation X and Millennials was identified. Equivalence of the three generations was found in the family dimension. Significant differences between Baby Boomers generation and each other generation were found in labor, social and personal dimensions. Millennials and Generation X only showed differences in the labor dimension. Conclusions: The Baby Boomers generation shows the highest frustration tolerance and Millennials generation the least frustration tolerance, especially in the labor dimension.