Parenting in the Zombie Apocalypse ― The Psychology of Raising Children in a Time of Horror

Parenting is difficult under the best of circumstances—but extremely daunting when humanity faces cataclysmic annihilation. When the dead rise, hardship, violence and the ever-present threat of flesh-eating zombies will adversely affect parents and children alike. Depending on their age, children will have little chance of surviving a single encounter with the undead, let alone the unending peril of the Zombie Apocalypse. The key to their survival—and thus the survival of the species—will be the caregiving they receive. Drawing on psychological theory and real-world research on developmental status, grief, trauma, mental illness, and child-rearing in stressful environments, this book critically examines factors influencing parenting, and the likely outcomes of different caregiving techniques in the hypothetical landscape of the living dead.

Steven J. Kirsh is a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Geneseo. He teaches courses on child development, introductory psychology, media psychology, and research methods. He has penned two academic books in the field of developmental media psychology and coauthored a third textbook on applied psychology.