“The Post-9/11 Generation’s Perceptions of Safety” : Karla Vermeulen determines how the tragedy changed perceptions for generations on Academic Minute

Karla Vermeulen, associate professor of psychology and deputy director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at New Paltz, appeared on the Nov. 15, 2021, episode of WAMC’s nationally syndicated radio program “The Academic Minute,” to explain how the Sept. 11 tragedy altered how some people view safety.

Vermeulen conducted a statistically representative, thousand-person national survey of emerging adults to determine how concerned they were about various threats. Overall only about one in five respondents were not at all concerned about different threats impacting them or their community, suggesting that this is a population with a high level of stress about future disasters.

“It’s worth noting that many current emerging adults (ages 18 to 29) have no direct memories of the September 11 attacks,” said Vermeulen. “However, the attacks and all of the subsequent societal changes shaped the broader environment they grew up in, and for many, those societal conditions have generated concerns about themselves and their communities experiencing additional disasters.”

Follow this link to read or listen to Karla Vermeulen’s “Academic Minute” broadcast in its entirety.

Karla Vermeulen is the author of three books, most recently “Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11” from Oxford University Press.

About “The Academic Minute”
“The Academic Minute” is an educationally focused radio segment produced by WAMC in Albany, New York, a National Public Radio member station. The show features an array of faculty from colleges and universities across the country discussing the unique, high-impact aspects of their research. The program airs every weekday and is run multiple times during the day on about 50 different member stations across the National Public Radio spectrum. For more information, visit http://academicminute.org/.