Intragenerational

Intragenerational is an adjective that describes phenomena occurring within a single generation. It is used in sociology, economics, demography, and related fields to refer to patterns, processes, or inequalities that affect individuals who belong to the same birth cohort or age group, rather than across different generations.

The term is often contrasted with intergenerational, which concerns transfers and differences that occur between generations, such as wealth, opportunities, or status passed from parents to children. Intragenerational analysis focuses on changes that happen within a cohort over the life course or among individuals of the same generation in a given period.

Common usages include intragenerational inequality, intragenerational mobility, and intragenerational disadvantage. Intragenerational inequality describes differences in outcomes—such as income, education, health, or employment—among members of the same generation. Intragenerational mobility refers to changes in social or economic position that individuals experience within their own lifetime or within the boundaries of a single generation, as opposed to mobility across generations. Examples include earnings growth for a cohort as it ages, disparities in educational attainment among peers born in the same period, or career advancement within a generation.

Researchers study intragenerational dynamics using cohort analyses, life-course perspectives, and lifetime or longitudinal data. This approach helps illuminate how factors like policy, economy, technology, family background, and education interact to produce differences among individuals within the same generation.