“I’ve grown up in the 21st century, where disasters happen every 20 minutes.”
“It feels as though we're being stuck with a bill for a party that we didn't attend. We are going to have to be responsible for mitigating climate change, enacting health care reform, reducing income inequality, etc., while older generations don't seem to care.”
“[We are] literally just trying to survive.”
The Book
Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11 is an in-depth examination of the multiple stressors that shaped the developmental environment for today’s emerging adults in their youth, and as they now take on adult responsibilities in an unprecedentedly complex world. Those stressors include all of the societal changes that occurred in the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as other threats like the increase in school shootings and other human-caused disasters, worsening natural disasters and concerns about the future due to climate change – and now the global pandemic. The omnipresence of social media amplifies these issues and heightens political divisiveness, while the difficult job market, growing wealth gap between rich and poor, and burden of student debt makes many emerging adults doubt they’ll ever find a satisfying career, be able to start a family, or buy a home.
As a result, many are stressed out and pessimistic about their futures, yet others are flourishing despite all of the challenges they face. Generation Disaster provides a detailed look into the many forces that are shaping this cohort of emerging adults, drawing on quantitative and qualitative research and including extensive quotations that allow its members to speak for themselves to counter the negative stereotypes older people often perpetuate about them.
Share your story - whether or not you’re an emerging adult (18-29), your experience merits recognition!
The Author
Karla Vermeulen, Ph.D., is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health and an Associate Professor of Psychology at SUNY New Paltz, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in disaster mental health, grief counseling, and developmental psychology. In addition to teaching and research, she has coordinated the development and production of training curricula on disaster mental health for the New York State Department of Health and Office of Mental Health, the American Red Cross, the United Nations, and other organizations. She can be reached at vermeulk@newpaltz.edu.
Watch the Generation Disaster
Panel Discussion
at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum
December 14, 2022
A particular slice of the population, which includes roughly the younger half of Millennials and the older half of Gen Z, are distinguished by the fact that while they live in the shadow of 9/11, it is an event for which they may not have a memory or complete understanding. Disaster mental health expert Karla Vermeulen refers to this group – those who were born between 1989 and 2001 - as Generation Disaster in her latest book of the same name. She is joined by Florence Buchanan, director of the documentary films Right There and Right There Part 2, which follow a group of 12 students from PS 234, an elementary school located three blocks north of the World Trade Center, as they reflect on their experiences at the milestone junctures of 10 and 20 years after the 9/11 attacks. One of the students, now a special education teacher, Jenice Lyla Walford, shares her personal reflections as a member of this generation. Together, in conversation with Noah Rauch, Senior Vice President of Education and Public Programs, they discuss the trauma caused by numerous events that have followed since the attacks and how these events have continued to shape all of us – as kids, as adults, as parents, and as a community.
