The Quarter-Life Crisis

All of the critical existential life questions begin with one thing: the concept of death. The fear of death and the inability to cope with it has led humans through a grueling journey of finding a purpose and seeking fulfillment in one’s life. This journey to self-actualization often includes doubt, impulsivity, and panic over time running out. Historically, this period of questioning and uncertainty often occurs between the ages of 40 and 60, when one faces overwhelming dread of death, aging, and purpose, wondering if the decisions they made in their lives have led them to the right place. Media depictions often show a middle-aged man buying a flashy new car or dating women in their 20s in an effort to feel young again (Figure 1). However, as time has progressed, a new phenomenon has begun to stir up questions about something similar, just way earlier in life. This is the quarter-life crisis. The midlife crisis evolved into the quarter-life crisis because of changing transitional stages of life over time due to the U.S.'s changing political and economic states.

Some may believe there is no connection between the two or that the quarter-life crisis does not exist at all. Identity crises can happen at any point during adulthood, so what is the connection? There are several reasons why the mid-life crisis has given way to the quarter-life crisis, and to examine the reason for that shift, one must study the origins of the mid-life crisis. The term identity crisis was coined by developmental psychologist Erik Erikson in 1968 (1), but humans have struggled with identity and the meaning of life since the beginning. Many religions are centered around the idea of salvation and purpose, and there really is not one specific moment when people began to ask these sorts of questions; it’s when the concept of death was understood by humans that questions arose about the purpose of life. Still, a growing life expectancy creates worry about retirement and post-children life, as more time means there is more to accomplish.

The Midlife Crisis

One of the earliest documented questions of identity was in 1826 by 19th-century English philosopher John Stuart Mill. In the article “The Ethics of Identity” in the New York Times, Mill’s mid-life crisis was dissected through a modern lens. “Mill memorably wrote about the great crisis in his life – a sort of midlife crisis, which, as befitted his precocity, visited when he was twenty, and the spiral of anomie into which he descended during the winter of 1826”(1). He moved away from everything he knew and felt confused about his future and beliefs. Kwame Anthony Appiah writes, "Mill's concern with self-development and experimentation was a matter of both philosophical inquiry and personal experience.” Mill recounts this experience in his autobiography as his “experiment,” and it is one of the earliest in-detail accounts of one’s personal struggle with age, death, and fulfillment. In 1826, the industrial revolution was in full swing, and Mill was a single-man. As a single 20-year-old man in this period, he was racing against time to avoid becoming a “disagreeable bachelor,” and he often compared being married to owning slaves, saying “the position of married women resembled that of slaves in several ways” (1). He began to spiral, questioning his life choices and deciding to start anew. He spoke about the “race of life” and desired direction. Eventually, he married at age 45. (Figure 2).

Nevertheless, the idea of the mid-life crisis came to a head when Elliot Jaques, a Canadian psychoanalyst, coined the term in 1957. Jacques said, “In ordinary people, symptoms could include religious awakenings, promiscuity, a sudden inability to enjoy life, ‘hypochondriacal concern over health and appearance,’ and ‘compulsive attempts’ to remain young” (2). Jaques looked at the crisis as a fear of aging and an idea of regret over how much time had passed. The term “mid-life” was coined in 1895, and as industrialization pushed people to switch up their lifestyles and modern medicine improved, the overall life expectancy of people has now doubled (3). The ever-changing societal norms in American culture cause a change in the dynamic of older people, who were once glad to reach “mid-life” as it meant a sign of maturity and respect. Yet as the 20th century progressed, so did the idea of the aging body and sexuality, leading adults to fear negative physical attributes and declining health (4). If one is financially secure, they stagnate once their children have moved out of the home and are facing retirement. In the 20th century, people generally lived no more than 4-7 years after retirement. Today, it’s about thirty years. This means that more money must be saved to sustain a post-retirement lifestyle, and today's economy is not stable enough for people to live off the same amount they used to. This causes new stresses that were not present before for this age group. On top of everything, women additionally face menopause, where the body evolves, signaling the end of fertility and aging. Yet, it often comes with a mental acknowledgment that one is halfway through life. The rise of new life paths occurs at this time, as the stress of an unpredictable economy and overwhelming choices of what to do next. 

Middle age is a traumatic period for many, as one is squeezed between caring for their parents, who may or may not be alive, and caring for their children, who are most likely leaving home soon. Many have dubbed them the “Sandwich Generation.” Insecurities and confusion lead to a second-puberty-like stage in adulthood, including hormone changes, insecurity, and anticipation of the future. This can be an increasingly dark time as change and uncertainty prompt feelings of loneliness and purposelessness. As of 2016, “large numbers of white, midlife, low-education American citizens seemed to be dying prematurely in what looked like accidental or deliberately self-destructive actions (particularly overdoses),” calling them deaths of despair (5). There is a newly found understanding that well-being may be U-shaped throughout life (Figure 3), hitting an all-time low around ages 40-50 (6). One of the fundamental aspects of this is the transitional period that occurs around age 50. But this is not the only transitional period in adulthood; another large time frame of uncertainty is from the ages 25-35, being the quarter-life crisis. Young adults graduating college face extreme change from 20-30 that was different from before the 1950s. Higher education became mainstream during the late-1960s, meaning that the transition from school to work meant more choice and more change. 

The Quarter-Life Crisis

The quarter-life crisis highlights a more modern notion that young adults face, as the rites of passage for millennials have been at a setback. People are getting married later, having children later, and delaying their life experiences for many reasons, including economic crises. Tom Anderson of NBC News says that “Recently, millennials have occasionally been referred to as the Boomerang Generation or Peter Pan Generation because of the members' perceived penchant for delaying some rites of passage into adulthood for longer periods than previous generations” (7). This will cause uncertainty and questioning among millennials, ultimately leading to a period of existential questioning called the quarter-life crisis. They wonder if they are on the “right” track, and often compare their own lives to those who came before them. Yet there is so much more choice than in the generations before. 

Young adults face more uncertainty now than ever. In the 18th century, women were married off at ages 13 to 15 once they could reproduce, and teenagers were moving out of the house as soon as they could work and find apprenticeships. Schooling was not mandatory until the 1940s, and college was not mainstream until the 1960s. Without these societal functions, there was less choice and ultimately less worry, as life was not nearly as opportunistic as it is today. People were dating to marry up until the 1970s, and now, college is following a more high-school-like rite of passage for teens. Everything is shifting adulthood further and further back and elongating adolescence. This, in turn, gives young people more freedom to decide who they are and what they want to do with their lives. Thus, the quarter-life crisis is born. There have been immense developments in “social norms pertaining to marriage, divorce, cohabitation, parenting, and sexuality, which have altered the normative developmental course of adulthood” (8), delaying it further for room to ruminate. 

The hit song “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac in 1975 is one of the most notable songs about the quarter-life crisis, as Stevie Nicks wrote the song in 1974 during a period of uncertainty in her career, the passing of time, her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham, and her relationship with her family. She writes, “Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?” (9). Ultimately she is questioning her life choices and the trajectory of her future. It’s about introspection into who you are as a person and whether or not you can handle what is coming your way - something that many people face in their 20s and 30s. Nicks was 25 when she wrote this song. 

According to research done by the mentoring and coaching platform, Better Up, “quarter-life crises are more common than we think. One survey shows 86% of millennials have experienced a quarter-life crisis. Some reported stress about money, mostly ‘soul-searching stress’”(10). This idea of soul-searching is a daunting aspiration for many, but it has become more and more nerve-wracking around the teenage to young adult years. In today’s society, this is becoming even more of a problem. Being in your mid-twenties in 2023 has new problems that did not exist in the centuries prior. Separation from family for the first time in or after college, climate anxiety, pandemic causing mourning, entry-level, etc., were not precisely the worries of a twenty-something-year-old in 1940 and even more so further from that of a 19th-century adult. 

In the 19th century, twenty would be middle-aged. But today, “Young adults may have an easier time moving to a new city or starting a new job than their older counterparts would.” (11). In this, the author points out the new freedoms that people have that did not exist before, which is an essential aspect of why the quarter-life crisis exists in the first place. This idea of independence for young adults is more significant now that teenagers live with their parents until this point, and in most cases, way later. Studies show that people aren’t moving out of their parent's homes until the age of 27 (12) when in the 1930s, it was around 18-20 due to World War II. According to an article done by Stanford University, “After the post World War II era, middle-class American parents have realized that they need to prepare their children to make it on their own someplace beyond the boundaries of immediate parental influences” (13). People were forced to make it independently without parents due to war casualties or because they were drafted. But whether you are 18 or 28, following this period of independence often comes loneliness, depression, and questioning, otherwise known as the quarter-life crisis. 

The real-life struggles of the mid-life crisis are often exaggerated and portrayed in media, allowing teenagers to view this content through the lens of their own experience, further causing more questioning even earlier in life. There are many popular accounts of mid-life and quarter-life crises in the media, starting with a book that is now often required reading for high schoolers - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Nick Carraway randomly realizes that it is his thirtieth birthday, saying, “I just remembered that today's my birthday. I was thirty. Before I stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade” (14). Nick Carraway then comes to a realization about his life, understanding that he no longer wants to live the way those around him are. “​​Thirty--the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning briefcase of enthusiasm, thinning hair,” as he calls it. This novel was written in 1925, meaning F. Scott Fitzgerald was exploring the quarter-life crisis well before the concept was named. Additionally, some of the most notable films in American history revolve around the idea of a mid-life crisis, including St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), American Beauty (1999), The Graduate (1967), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) (15). One of the biggest reasons for this overwhelming display of the life crisis in the media is relatability. It’s natural and something that many people experience in all different aspects of life, making it entertaining media and an insight into our lives and choices. Therefore, the history of the midlife crisis ultimately shapes the destiny of those learning about it and the inevitable road to repeating it. Isolation and depression due to changing environments and the closure of significant life experiences may cause uncertainty and pain, yet it is something that many people experience. 

Endnotes

1. Appiah, Kwame Anthony. “The Ethics of Identity.” The New York Times. The New York Times, June 12, 2005. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/books/chapters/the-ethics-of-identity.html 

2. Druckerman, Pamela. “How the Midlife Crisis Came to Be .” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, June 22, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/05/the-invention-of-the-midlife-crisis/561203/ 

3. Medina, Lauren. “Demographic Turning Points for the United States.” Historical and Projected Life Expectancy in the United States, 1960 to 2060, February 2020. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1144.pdf 

4. Lecture (4/18) Mid-Life 

5. Case, A, and A Deaton (2015a), “Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(49): 15078–83.

6. Blanchflower, D. G., & Oswald, A. J. (2008). Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?. Social science & medicine (1982), 66(8), 1733–1749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.01.030 

7. Anderson, Tom. “Debt-Locked: Student Loans Force Millennials to Delay Life Milestones.” NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News Group, August 5, 2015. https://www.nbcnews.com/better/money/debt-locked-student-loans-force-millennials-delay-life-milestones-n404636  

8. Robinson, Oliver. Emerging Adulthood in a European Context. 1st ed. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2015. 

9. Fleetwood, Mac. “Fleetwood Mac – Landslide.” Genius. Columbia Records, 1975. https://genius.com/Fleetwood-mac-landslide-lyrics  

10. Miles, Madeline. “Quarter-Life Crisis: Signs, Causes, and 4 Ways to Overcome It.” Better Up. Better Up CA, May 12, 2022. https://www.betterup.com/blog/quarter-life-crisis#:~:text=According%20to%20Forbes%2C%20a%20quarter,Some%20reported%20stress%20about%20money  

11. Blum, Dani. “What Psychologists Want Today’s Young Adults to Know.” The New York Times, July 29, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/well/family/quarter-life-crisis.html 

12. “Independence for Young Millennials: Moving Out and Boomeranging Back: Monthly Labor Review.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Accessed April 2, 2023. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/independence-for-young-millennials-moving-out-and-boomeranging-back.htm 

13. Rosenfeld, Michael J. “The Independence of Young Adults, in Historical Perspective.” Stanford University Press, 2010. https://web.stanford.edu/~mrosenfe/Rosenfeld_live_Indep_MFT_magazine.pdf 

14. SCOTT, F. SCOTT FITZGERALD. Great Gatsby. S.l.: ANDREWS MCMEEL, 2023. 

15. “Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis.” TV Tropes. Accessed April 2, 2023. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodMidLifeCrisis  

Multimedia Links

1. Figure 1=  Baker, Missy. “Cry for Help Memes.” Some E-Cards. Accessed May 3, 2023. https://www.someecards.com/usercards/nsviewcard/MjAxMy05MTg4ZjRlNGU4YzJlY2Ni/ 

2. Figure 2 = Anchultz, Richard Paul. “John Stuart Mill.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., March 14, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Stuart-Mill. 

3. Figure 3= Blanchflower, David G. “Is Happiness U-Shaped Everywhere? Age and Subjective Well-Being in 145 Countries - Journal of Population Economics.” SpringerLink. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, September 9, 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-020-00797-z. 

About the Author