study investigates post-sept. 11 generation students

Anyone who was in college during the Sept. 11 attacks is part of "Generation 9/11," according to UT education associate professor Patricia Somers.

After conducting a study on college students, Somers said the attacks on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 define this generation.

In a released study, Somers and several doctoral students at Washington University in St. Louis spent two years conducting research at five midwestern universities and colleges, posing questions to 50 students about their immediate and long-term reactions to Sept. 11.

Somers said a Newsweek article on the attacks sparked her interest in the study, but found most research on reactions were focused on New York City. She began the study with the intent of seeing how students reacted in other parts of the country.

"Having worked in the industry for generations, I could see the differences in my students, and I wanted to see how this generation has been impacted by 9/11," Somers said.

The study showed many students' perspective of the world are defined by certain events.

"For students of the '60s, it was the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In the '80s, it was the explosion of the Challenger," said Patrick Biddix, a researcher at Washington University.

The study uses the terror management theory to base as a hypothesis. The theory says that humans are unique in their ability to coincide basic instincts, like survival, with the knowledge that death is inevitable.

"The short-term reaction is to be distracted. You'll withdraw from society and gamble or drink, or exhibit signs of bigotry," said Robert Wild, a researcher at Washington University. "In the long term you will reach out to your family."

Somers found that students reacted by reaching out into their world perspectives more than the terror management theory predicted.

"[Students] signed up for more world and middle-eastern studies classes than before," Somers said. "We found that 20 percent of people we interviewed changed their course of study or their major because of 9/11."

The study found that more groups than the theory predicted were skeptical of government actions after Sept. 11. Students were also more critical of social and economic issues.

"Generation X was recessive. This next Generation 9/11 will alternate and become dominant. More civic-minded, less materialistic. They will have more reactions to racial profiling, saying, 'How can I make a difference?'" Wild said.

Only the first of the five project phases has been completed. The project will take at least three more years to go into further depth. It will begin to address the differences in reactions among minority groups and women.

"My broader hope is to follow students in the long-term and see what leadership roles they take and how 9/11 affects their thinking," Somers said.