Culture and the youngest. Insights for the future of cultural consumption from an Italian sample

The paper explores the cultural consumption of teenagers, seen as consumers not yet independent from an economic point of view, but already independent in the choice and tastes. Our results apply to a sample of about 350 students living in the Cuneo province, in North-West of Italy, through a cluster analysis approach. Young consumers can be segmented into four homogeneous groups according to the level of consumption in five cultural sectors (music, cinema, museum, performing art, books) and the degree of direct engagement in cultural practices. There are significant differences in their cultural consumptions, family and individual cultural capital, school results and sports engagement. The cultural expenditure is differentiated accordingly. The existence of different cultural consumption clusters highlights the need, both for policy-makers and cultural industries, to better understand the next generation of adults, thus suggesting the importance to start a proper data collection at the national level.