Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11
Chapter Descriptions
Chapter 1. Introduction
This chapter of Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11 describes the book’s premise: Current emerging adults (ages 18 to 29) have faced an unprecedented level of cumulative stressors throughout their lives, including the post-9/11 wars, school shootings and other disasters, climate change, and the pandemic. These threats are compounded by societal factors like a struggling economy, political divisiveness, and the impact of social media. The chapter outlines the book’s methodology, and presents the core questions that will be addressed about the developmental impact of growing up in such a complex world, including how the many stressors they face will shape the cohort as they move through emerging adult and beyond.
Chapter 2. Meet Generation Disaster
This chapter describes the basic principles of cohort effects and generational labels, and explains how Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model of interacting systems of developmental influence will inform the book. To provide historical context, the chapter describes the society the oldest members of Generation Disaster were born into in 1989, and how subsequent societal forces – primarily but not exclusively the attacks of 9/11, the 2008 recession, and the growing influence of media – have rapidly changed U.S. culture throughout the cohort’s lives, forcing them to constantly adapt to an unstable and stressful environment throughout childhood and adolescence, and as they’ve become emerging adults.
Chapter 3. Parenting Post-9/11
This chapter examines the environment that Generation Disaster’s caregivers created within the family microsystem throughout their childhood and adolescence, as parents are generally the most important developmental influence during those formative years. It then considers how this cohort’s parents were impacted by 9/11 and all of the subsequent societal changes, as well as their fears about children’s safety amid the rise in school shootings, and it demonstrates how children’s responses to stressful and traumatic events are closely correlated with their caregivers’ reactions. The chapter considers whether accusations of “helicopter parenting” by these caregivers are valid, and it examines the impact of smartphones and other technologies on the first group of parents and children that had to incorporate these tools into their family dynamics.
Chapter 4. Lockdown Drills in Kindergarten: The Threat (Perceived and Actual) of School Shootings
This chapter examines the primary childhood experience that sets Generation Disaster apart from previous cohorts: their early awareness of the threat of school shootings and other types of mass gun violence. It explores the impact of participating in school lockdown drills throughout primary and secondary school and how these security activities can increase distress and anxiety for some children, and it describes how extremely rare school-based rampage attacks are relative to much more common forms of gun violence that receive less media attention. The chapter also discusses the role of social media in mass shootings, including as a motivator for copy-cat attacks and a source of vicarious trauma through exposing viewers to unfiltered images of violence.
Chapter 5. Unsafe at Any Time
This chapter examines Generation Disaster’s perceptions of safety, risk, fairness, and other consequences of their early environment, and it explores whether these concerns relate to the high rates of anxiety and depression reported by this generation relative to other cohorts. It also describes the methodological challenges that are inherent in trying to make valid comparisons to previous ages, given all of the dramatic societal changes of the past few decades, and the chapter discusses the impact of the belittling descriptions of this cohort by elders as being overly sensitive or generally inferior to previous generations, when in reality their often cautious worldview may be an adaptive response to a genuinely more dangerous world.
Chapter 6. Mistrusting Authorities in an Unstable World
This chapter examines how members of Generation Disaster engage with the political system today, having grown up in a post-9/11, wartime climate when many felt lied to or misrepresented by politicians and other authorities. That was followed by the extreme divisiveness of U.S. politics in general during their adolescence and as they moved into emerging adulthood. While some have chosen to disengage entirely, others have been moved to protest, vote at record levels, and generally continue the tradition of trying to recapture power from older people they feel aren’t representing them adequately. The importance of civic engagement as a marker of adulthood, and the history of social movements in the U.S., are also discussed.
Chapter 7. Climate Change and Expectations for the Future of the Planet
This chapter discusses one of the more amorphous stressors for Generation Disaster, as it’s difficult to measure the psychological impact of a chronic problem like climate change. Many emerging adults recognize the problem and experience varying levels of stress about it, sometimes referred to as “eco-anxiety,” and many are actively engaged in combatting its effects. Others consider it a lower priority than the many acute stressors they’re trying to manage, but in general younger generations express far more concern about the problem than their elders. The chapter explores these reactions and the efforts of some emerging adults to cope with a stressor many feel they unfairly inherited.
Chapter 8. Questioning College: Necessary, Expensive, and No Guarantee of Success
This chapter considers the stressors (economic and otherwise) that surround decisions about pursuing and paying for higher education. While attending college is now the norm for American emerging adults, some believe that higher education is essential yet inadequate for launching a career. Many graduate with crippling student loans that drastically limit their career options, yet they believe they have no chance of finding decent work that without a degree. Others don’t pursue college, which has different implications for the path the rest of their lives may take. It’s a decision with far greater consequences than for previous generations when many decent jobs were available to those without a college education, and yet another source of intense stress for many members of Generation Disaster.
Chapter 9. Economic Expectations
This chapter explores how Generation Disaster’s career hopes have been shaped by the depressed economy of their youth, the mortgage crisis that destroyed many families’ primary investments, and the current competition for work in a job market that was still recovering from the Great Recession and then crashed again due to the pandemic. Many members of the group express serious pessimism about their financial prospects, including their chances of securing satisfying work and being able to retire. Others are more optimistic, particularly if they started off with more resources. This divide in expectations reinforces the growing income and wealth gaps between segments of the population, and demonstrates that the myth of the “American Dream” is not available to everyone.
Chapter 10. Family Expectations
This chapter examines how members of Generation Disaster envision their pursuit of traditional goals like finding a partner, having children, and buying a home, in an era when they have more choices than ever – but each choice comes at some cost. For many, the rocky economy, their perceptions about the general safety of the world, and fears about climate change make them question whether it’s appropriate to reproduce at all. As a result of external forces and the major societal shifts around these customary but no longer automatic markers of adulthood, some are taking alternative paths around traditional approaches to family formation – whether by choice or because they feel circumstances beyond their control, like their finances, have forced them to.
Chapter 11. Conclusion
The conclusion summarizes key points from the book, emphasizing how complex and unstable the world has always been for Generation Disaster. While every generation faces its own challenges, there has never been a combination of social and political stressors shaping daily life to the degree this cohort has experience, yet many demonstrate remarkable resilience and optimism. Older adults are encouraged to stop judging them, and instead to allow them to demonstrate what they’re capable of when simply given the opportunity.