Lenses: The Story of Gen Z

Lenses: The Story of Gen Z

James Aaron Brown | 2019

Abstract

Generation Z, born between the years 1995 and 2013, is the newest generation to join the American experience. Unfortunately, Gen Z has higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide compared to any previous generation. Three areas that contribute to the mental health epidemic of Gen Z include smartphones and social media technology, parenting styles, and worldview.

Generation theory, developed by William Strauss and Neil Howe in 1991, received expansion in 1997’s The fourth turning: An American prophecy. Strauss and Howe’s theory lays out a framework that identifies four turnings or events in the American experience. The first turning is a high. The second turning is a spiritual awakening. The third turning is an unraveling. Finally, the fourth turning is a secular crisis. Strauss and Howe’s theory utilizes the four turnings to explain the formation of generations, their corresponding and general personalities, and the impact each generation has on the American experience.

First, generation theory provides predictable patterns that help leaders develop developmental strategies for Gen Z for the next sixty years of the generation’s lifespan. Second, leaders of various organizations must consider the majority of Gen Z entering their house of worship or place of employment have some level of anxiety and depression. Third, Gen Z is a generation that mentally and emotionally mature slower than previous generations due to smartphone usage and parenting styles. Gen Z also have lower levels of happiness as well as competing ideologies due to holding an American progressive worldview.

Finally, the solution for the crisis is for leaders of various organizations to incorporate cognitive behavioral therapy tools into their liturgical observations, curriculum, employee onboarding, and leadership development programs. Such tools involve breathing, visualization, muscle relaxation, and problem-solving tools. Ultimately, the goal of leaders is to help Gen Z gain emotional maturity not developed during Gen Z’s teen and collegiate phases of life.