Is there any correlation between world and national events that may have influenced each generation's outlook on life?

There usually is. For example, after World War 1, many people returned home to America where things were going well, there were even the so called roaring twenties where economy was great and things were going well, but the events of world war 1 on an international level somehow managed to transfer to the US and we got the generation of writers called the Lost Generation. They were highly depressed and pessimistic about their view of life.