Virus pandemic an unprecedented test for a young generation

CHICAGO (AP) — For Jalen Grimes, the virus pandemic is stirring up a slew of emotions. “Annoyed" is the first one the 13-year-old Chicagoan mentions. “Scared, confused, worried.”

She was supposed to be enjoying the end of her eighth-grade year, a rite of passage in states like Illinois, with a graduation and a school trip that are not likely to happen. That's hard enough. But her father is also about to be deployed as a paramedic, a more dangerous than usual job in these times. Her mom, a therapist, also has been on call a lot and is prone to pneumonia. And then there are her grandparents.

“It’s a lot of fear with family members and stuff,” Jalen said. “I think a lot of us don’t think it will affect us, but it’s a worry.”

As this crisis unfolds, her generation likely be tested like never before, especially those whose families are already on the edge, financially and health-wise.

“It’s going to make them feel differently about their mortality, possibly, what the world offers, what security looks like,” said Cathy Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, who regularly tracks the views of young people.

In pre-pandemic surveys, she has found that these young adults already sense that they won’t have as much as their parents have.

Some like to portray them as coddled and entitled. But this is a generation that also has grown up with its share of stress — school shootings, social media pressure, a Great Recession, climate change. Young adults, older than Jalen, remember the terror attacks of 9/11 and know how it feels when the world changes in an instant.

Now comes this global event that German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the biggest challenge since World War II. Meanwhile, Aaron Pallas, a researcher at...