Baby boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—are increasingly being singled out by psychological experts as the most resilient living generation today, shaped by post‑war hardship, rapid social change and a childhood far less cushioned by convenience, technology or emotional reassurance.
Commentary from experts suggests that growing up in an era defined by necessity rather than comfort forged traits like resilience that is now being re‑examined, particularly as younger generations face criticism for being more vocal about mental health conditions.
Those who came of age in the post‑World War II era navigated rapid industrialization, cultural upheaval and family structures that often prized stoicism over emotional processing. While lifestyle‑focused publications, podcasts and everything in between have been platforming boomers as uniquely resilient, Newsweek spoke with Lynn Zakeri, licensed clinical social worker and therapist who owns the practice Lynn Zakeri LCSW Clinical Services, PLLC, to understand why—and what that label obscures.
The renewed fascination with boomer resilience has emerged alongside a wider cultural tension.
Public discourse increasingly frames generational differences in stark terms: boomers as hardy and unflappable; young adults—particularly Gen Z—as fragile, over‑diagnosed, or unable to tolerate discomfort. Zakeri cautions that this framing oversimplifies both experiences, while ignoring the vastly different conditions each generation has had to survive.
“Many boomers were raised by parents who survived war, scarcity, and upheaval, where perseverance and endurance were core values,” Zakeri told Newsweek. “Resilience was defined as pushing through discomfort, staying functional, and not stopping for emotional processing or self‑reflection.”
That definition, she said, was reinforced by the systems boomers moved through. Loyalty, long‑term effort and consistency were rewarded, while vulnerability was often sidelined.
“They grew up in systems that often rewarded grit, loyalty, and long‑term effort, reinforcing endurance as the primary coping strategy,” she said.
Those conditions, Zakeri argues, made boomers uniquely tough by default. But she argues that this toughness came with trade‑offs.
“Endurance and resilience are not the same thing,” she said. “Many boomers learned to tolerate distress rather than examine or address it, which worked externally but often came at an internal cost.”
What Makes Boomers Resilient?
For boomers, resilience was not a buzzword or a wellness goal. It was a requirement. Many grew up under conditions where emotional support systems, as understood today, were limited. Feelings, for some, were often secondary to function.
That environment, Zakeri argues, produced a generation adept at pushing through difficulty, maintaining productivity under stress and weathering uncertainty without public display. The psychological strengths that resulted—persistence, tolerance for discomfort, long‑term focus—are now being singled out as increasingly rare in an era defined by constant feedback, digital saturation and heightened emotional awareness.
But the idea that boomers are the “most resilient” generation is not just coming from psychological experts or media figures. Research suggests boomers themselves are helping reinforce the stereotype too.
A 2024 study by the Policy Institute at King’s College London in England and the Orygen Institute in Australia found that Baby Boomers and Gen X are around twice as likely as millennials and Gen Z to say youth mental health problems have increased because young people today are “less resilient.”
The findings explain why resilience has become such a charged concept. For those who grew up equating strength with endurance, public expressions of anxiety or requests for mental health support can perhaps appear to some, indulgent.
But emotional language, mental health support and self‑reflection, Zakeri says, were neither widely available nor culturally encouraged when boomers were growing up.
The result was a generation highly capable of functioning under pressure, but sometimes without the tools to process the psychological toll that pressure exacted.
The boomer resilience narrative has gained traction partly because it contrasts so sharply with how Gen Z is often portrayed. Younger adults are frequently accused of being less resilient because they speak openly about mental health conditions or refuse to “push through” environments that feel misaligned or harmful.
Zakeri says that interpretation misses a crucial shift.
“Gen Z does not struggle because they can’t tolerate discomfort; they struggle because they notice it sooner and name it more accurately,” she said. “They are highly attuned to their internal states and less willing to override anxiety, stress, or misalignment just to ‘push through.’”
What can look like fragility from the outside, she explained, is often awareness rather than avoidance.
Gen Z tends to identify overwhelm earlier, she says, examine its causes and seek support before distress becomes chronic—sometimes to excess, sometimes influenced by social media, but often with the goal of regulation rather than suppression.
The more accurate comparison, Zakeri said, is not resilience versus fragility, but endurance versus adaptation.
“Boomers were resilient in a world that required endurance,” she said. “Gen Z is adaptive in a world that requires self‑awareness, flexibility, and emotional regulation.”
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