TORONTO -- Post-baby boomers have inherited a greater acceptance of feminism, same-sex marriage and interracial marriage from their parents. But when it comes to seeking guidance on things like relationships, they don't look to Mom and Dad for advice, a new study suggests.

"Post-boomers have learned a lot about how they want to live life from the boomers, but they've also learned a lot about how they don't want to live life," says Reginald Bibby, a sociologist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta and author of a recent survey of boomer attitudes.

"We've never had more divorce among any cohort than we had among boomers," said Bibby. When post-baby boomers, the 18- to 34-year-olds, go looking for models for family life, "they don't look to the boomers, they look to their grandparents." At the same time, though, "they are not wanting to carry forward a lot of the bigotry that characterized the attitudes of their grandparents," he said.

"When I look at the attitudes my parents had toward racial intermarriage, they just couldn't comprehend that, just didn't think it was good for the kids," said Bibby, a borderline boomer.

What the post-boomers "are trying to do is to find bit of a balance between enjoying good relationships while at the same time they want their freedom," he said.

The No. 1 goal, though, for everyone remains the "personal freedom" to make their own decisions, ahead of family life and relationships, said Bibby, just before publication of his new book The Boomer Factor: What Canada's Most Famous Generation is Leaving Behind (Bastian Books $19.95).

The book, to hit store shelves in October, is based on the latest research (completed in 2005) in his Project Canada Survey series which measures changes in boomers' attitudes. Bibby has conducted a survey every five years, starting in 1975.

- On marijuana use, 43 per cent of boomers approved of its use in 1975, rising to 48 per cent in 2005. Among the general population, 26 per cent approved in 1975 and 45 per cent in 2005.

- On interracial marriage, 81 per cent of boomers approved of it in 1975, rising to 94 per cent in 2005. Among the population as a whole, only 45 per cent approved such marriages in 1975, rising to 90 per cent in 2005.

- On gay relations, 43 per cent of boomers (28 per cent among Canadians as a whole) approved of homosexuality in 1975, rising to 66 per cent (62 per cent overall) in 2005.

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