Star Wars as Bildungsroman

     I hope the title of this post isn't too misleading, since I do not at the moment intend to write a lengthy post on the topic subject of Star Wars as a coming-of-age story.  One could write a whole book on this, and I'm sure somebody already has.  Rather, I am interested to gather some statistics.
     About three years ago, it became clear to me that there are young people in this country who somehow never saw Star Wars until college or later, and when they saw it professed that they didn't really get it.  It made me sit back and think about how everyone I knew who was a Star Wars fan-- or who at least had some sort of place in his heart for the films-- had seen it for the first time as a child.  Is this a common theme, or is it only a coincidence?  Parts of the story only make sense as I rewatch the films for the first time in ten years, so why do they especially resonate with the young?  Clearly, Luke is young and he matures during this adventure, but that can be said of many a protagonist in many a story.
     What are your thoughts?  Please let me know in the poll and the comments, I am truly interested in solving this mystery! :)

NOTA BENE:  The poll is aaallll the way down at the bottom of the page and in really small font-- I'm still playing with the format here. :)