Quarter-life crisis

The quarterlife crisis is a term applied to the period of life immediately following the major changes of adolescence, usually ranging from the late teens to the early thirties. The term is named by analogy with mid-life crisis.

The first book to identify this phenomenon was Quarterlife Crisis, the Unique Challenges of Life in your Twenties (Tarcher, 2001), coauthored by Abby Wilner and Alexandra Robbins, while the first to offer practical solutions - based on peer research - was Damian Barr's Get It Together: A Guide to Surviving Your Quarterlife Crisis (Hodder, 2004&2005). An early version of the phenomenon was posited by Erik H. Erikson although the current manifestation, as Wilner, Robbins and Barr argue, is different.

Emotional aspects

Kazimir Malevich's impressionist *Unemployed Girl* (1904)

Characteristics of quarter-life crisis may include:^{[citation needed]}

confronting one's own mortality
insecurity concerning ability to love oneself, let alone another person
insecurity regarding present accomplishments
re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
lack of friendships or romantic relationships, sexual frustration, and involuntary celibacy
disappointment with one's job
nostalgia for university, college, high school, middle school or elementary school life
tendency to hold stronger opinions
boredom with social interactions
loss of closeness to high school and college friends
financially-rooted stress (overwhelming college loans, unexpectedly high cost of living)
loneliness, depression and suicidal tendencies
desire to have children
a sense that others are doing better than oneself
frustration with social skills

These unsettling emotions and insecurities are not uncommon at this age or later in adult life. In the context of the quarter-life crisis, however, they occur shortly after a young person – usually an educated professional, in this context – enters the "real world".^[1] After entering adult life and coming to terms with its responsibilities, some individuals find themselves experiencing career stagnation or extreme insecurity. The individual often realizes the real world is tougher, more competitive and less forgiving than she/he imagined.

A related problem is simply that many college graduates do not achieve a desirable standard of living after graduation. They often end up living in low-income apartments with roommates instead of having an income high enough to support themselves. Substandard living conditions, combined with menial or repetitive work at their jobs create a great amount of frustration, anxiety and anger. Nobody wants to admit to feeling like a 'loser'; this secrecy may intensify the problem.

As the emotional highs and lows of adolescence and college life subside, many affected by quarter-life crisis experience a "graying" of emotion.

Furthermore, a factor contributing to quarter-life crisis may be the difficulty in adapting to a workplace environment. In college, professors' expectations are clearly given and students receive frequent feedback on their performance in their courses. One progresses from year to year in the education system. In contrast, within a workplace environment, one may be, for some time, completely unaware of a boss's displeasure with one's performance, or of one's colleagues' dislike of one's personality. One does not automatically make progress. Office politics require interpersonal skills that are largely unnecessary for success in an educational setting.

Financial and professional aspects

Graduation often marks the end of a student's academic career.

A primary cause of the stress associated with the "quarter-life crisis" is financial in nature; most professions have become highly competitive in recent years. ^[when?]^[where?] Positions of relative security – such as tenured positions at universities and "partner" status at law firms – have dwindled in number. This, combined with excessive downsizing, means that many people will never experience occupational security in their lives, and this is doubly unlikely in young adulthood. Generation X was the first generation to meet this uncertain "New Economy" en masse. There is also the problem of crippling student loans.^{[citation needed]}

Twenty and thirtysomethings are reluctant (or unable) to save for their futures. Only half are saving for their retirement and of those who are saving, half think they’re not saving enough, according to research by pensions provider Standard Life. Their report on the Re-Run Generation suggests that one of the reasons this generation is failing to plan for the future is because they’re anxious in the present. Barr was involved in this research.

The era when a professional career meant a life of occupational security and occupational pension – thus allowing an individual to proceed to establish an "inner life" – seems to be coming to an end. Under circumstances virtually effectuating stress disorders, financial professionals are often expected to spend at least 80 hours per week in the office, and people in the legal, medical, educational, and managerial professions may average more than 60.^[2]^[3] In most cases, these long hours are de facto involuntary, reflecting economic and social insecurity. While these ills plague adults at all ages, their worst victims are ambitious, unestablished young adults.^{[citation needed]}

College graduates are physically and mentally capable of performing many jobs, but lack the "1-2 years of experience" required to get hired and consequently end up doing simple tedious boring jobs for which they are overqualified. In college, some students spend all their time working hard to earn good grades and graduate on time, but do not gain any "real world" experience with which to secure a job.^{[citation needed]}

This catch-22 is tough for college students: one must have a degree to get hired, but cannot get hired without 1–2 years of practical experience. This cycle is infuriating for recent graduates. The few graduates that do land decent jobs after graduation usually have to work 15–20 hours per week at a job during college and, because of this, they may end up missing social events that university life has to offer, if they do not implement adequate time management practices. These students frequently desire romantic relationships but do not have the time in college to find or sustain them. Thus, they may end up with a job after college but long for a romantic partner and feel as unfulfilled as the graduates who have a partner and no job.^{[citation needed]}

In The Cheating Culture, David Callahan says that these ills of excessive competition and insecurity do not always end once one becomes established in a career, and therefore the "quarter-life crisis" may extend beyond young adulthood. Some measure of financial security, resulting from job security is necessary for psychological development. Some have theorized that insecurity in the "New Economy" will place many in a state of, effectively, perpetual adolescence, and that the rampant and competitive consumerism of the 1990s and 2000s indicates that this is already taking place.^{[citation needed]}

Other theories

Erik H. Erikson, who proposed eight crises that humans face during their development, also proposed the existence of a life crisis occurring at this age. In his developmental theory, he proposed that human life is divided into eight stages, each with its own conflict that humans must resolve. The conflict he associated with young adulthood is the Intimacy vs. Isolation crisis. According to him, after establishing a personal identity in adolescence, young adults seek to form intense, usually romantic relationships with other people.

The version of the "quarter-life crisis" proposed by Erikson, then, is very different from the one that occurs in popular culture. Indeed, the pop-culture version of the "quarter-life crisis" contains more elements of the crisis Erikson associated with adolescence, Identity vs. Role-confusion, giving credence to the theory that late-20th century life, with its bizarre mix of extreme comfort and insecurity, is causing people to mature at a slower rate.

References

^ Goldstein, Meredith (September 8, 2004). "The quarter-life crisis". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
^ State of Hawaii Board of Education & Hawaii State Teachers Association (2005). Time Committee Preliminary Report.
^ University of Minnesota (1995). Report of the Faculty Workload Task Force.

External links

[1] Goldstein, Meredith (September 8, 2004). "The quarter-life crisis". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-09-05.

[2] State of Hawaii Board of Education & Hawaii State Teachers Association (2005). Time Committee Preliminary Report.

[3] University of Minnesota (1995). Report of the Faculty Workload Task Force.

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Quarter-life crisis

Contents

Emotional aspects

Financial and professional aspects

Other theories

See also

References

Further reading

External links