Longitudinal Follow-Up of 9/11 Directly Exposed Children in their Age of Transition: Independence, Occupation and Morbidity

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When the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001, approximately 25,000 children were living or attending school in lower Manhattan, tens of thousands of other children were in the path of the plume. As we approach the 20th anniversary, it becomes clear that while we have thoroughly studied those exposed on 9/11 as adults, we did not adequately study those children, whose development was interrupted by 9/11. Those children are now in their early to mid-adulthood and many will carry the effects of 9/11 for a lifetime. There is, thus, a clear imperative to thoroughly understand the enduring impact of that exposure on all aspects of their lives now and going forward. Fortunately, our team, The Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group at Columbia University, was funded by NIOSH to recruit a representative sample (N=xx) of 9/11 directly exposed youth who were ages 0-17 on 9/11, as well as an unexposed control group. We have followed them through two waves of in-depth physical and psychological assessments. This cohort now constitutes the best available opportunity to understand the intricacies of the impact of 9/11 on adults who were exposed as children. In this study we propose to study the impact of childhood trauma on the central challenges, roles and relationships of entering and occupying adulthood, in addition to continuing the study’s collection of vital longitudinal information. We have this important opportunity now to compare those exposed with controls, which will enable us to examine how trauma affects intimacy and family formation, education and career consolidation, moral development and civic engagement, and the challenge of parenting, with a traumatic history. It represents a unique opportunity to add to our understanding about the nature of their unfolding adulthood, psychologically and physically. We will conduct another wave of in-depth assessments of psychological and physical health including pulmonary health and related parameters, and we will collect and biobank blood for a second time to allow for the future examination of inflammatory and epigenetic biologicals. As the long-term consequences of 9/11 direct exposure now inevitably includes these individuals’ experience with COVID-19, so this study will also evaluate the effects of an additional mass trauma on these emerging adults. In sum, this study will encourage new ways of thinking about trauma, development from childhood to mid-life, health promotion, and even parenting support of those traumatized as children.