Meet Generation Disaster

The “Meet Generation Disaster” 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 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.