Quarter-Life Crisis Research: Survey of Nearly 100 People in Crisis
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Evaluate your life satisfaction (self-assessment)
Watch this webinar recording on navigating a QLC
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A Quarter-Life Crisis is a tumultuous time that can happen in one’s 20s or early 30s and is characterized by a lack of clarity, disconnection and distress, and feeling like one is at a turning point or transition, according to the research of the leading Quarter-Life Crisis researcher, Dr. Oliver Robinson.
As I burned out and considered taking a break from work in 2020, I fell into a Quarter-Life Crisis myself (or more aptly, a Third-Life Crisis), wherein I was beset by doubts, depression, and a fierce desire for freedom from all commitments. I felt torn between the authentic desires of my inner self and the external expectations I felt pressured by. I lacked a compromise or coherent idea of who I really wanted to become.
From those rock-bottom moments to now I made a great many life and mindset changes which helped me to successfully navigate the crisis, including a new career focus as a Quarter-Life Crisis and burnout coach and researcher, working to help others navigate their own Quarter-Life or Third-Life Crisis. To this end, I developed a confidential Quarter-Life Crisis survey, which has since been completed by 94 people and counting. Continue reading to discover an overview of the survey findings, with takeaways.
Quarter-Life Crisis measurement benchmarks
The survey uses Dr. Oliver Robinson’s Developmental Crisis Questionnaire (DCQ-12) in order to measure one’s likelihood of being in the midst of a Quarter-Life Crisis.
There is no exact threshold over which one can be said to be in a Quarter-Life Crisis, and while many different dimensions such as region, background, gender, ethnicity, etc. can influence the trends, the following data anonymously aggregated across 94 respondents shows the average scores from the DCQ-12. A higher score indicates a higher likelihood that the respondent is having a Quarter-Life Crisis.
Note: this is not an accurate sampling that is representative of the general population, and is subject to sampling bias of those who have sought out information on Quarter-Life Crisis.
Average disconnection and distress score: 15.66 out of a possible 20
Average lack of clarity score: 14.37 out of a possible 20
Average turning point and transition score: 15.7 out of a possible 20
You can take the DCQ-12 via the Quarter-Life Crisis survey to calculate your own score.
Verbatim examples of motivations to navigate a Quarter-Life Crisis
Beginning with some of the reasons why navigating their Quarter-Life Crisis was important to people, here were some of the most striking and honest:
“My boys and my friends”
“I'm tired of feeling anxious.”
“I want to feel like myself again.”
“Everything- better relationships in all areas of my life”
“I want to enjoy life again. I'm miserable but I don't want to go up and I don't want this to be all there is.”
“I want to know how to manage my time and find resourses to move up in life and accomplish bigger things.”
“I keep circiling around the same problems about my career and feel like i finally need to actually get to the root of them and fix them”
“Feeling optimistic is important , it's like I have to keep reminding myself to feel optimistic about things when I just don't. I want that to change”
“The relationship I just left was going to kill me, I felt so trapped in this situation that was so contrary to what I actually needed. (I had started having suicidal ideation). I'm going to get what I want and be happy, or die trying.”
Causes of Quarter-Life Crisis
Based on the data, here are the most common from this multi-select, choose as many as apply question. There were not a significant number of custom “other” entries.
Here are some key takeaways:
One of the highest agreement among respondents was in what influenced their crisis, which was negative mental patterns
In close second and third were concerns over stagnation and dissatisfaction with one’s life, while lacking of clarity
The relatively high agreement of respondents in each mostly choosing all answers (except life loss) infers that, for the most part, respondents generally feel overwhelmed and not able to distinguish the independent priorities of the factors, or single out primary causes
A comparatively very small number of people found their crisis was caused by a loss that they had not integrated through therapy or other psyche-related work
Ways to navigate a Quarter-Life Crisis
Beyond understanding what factors potentially sparked a person’s crisis, the survey also explores peoples’ willingness to explore a variety of changes that may help, assessed via two multi-select choose as many as apply questions.
Here are some key takeaways from what changes people are willing to commit to:
The top change was to change one’s mental narrative/mindset, which is positive to see given that negative mental narratives were found to be the highest cause of the crisis
Via Dr. Robinson’s research, one of the causes for a Quarter-Life Crisis can be due to feeling “locked into” a commitment that is no longer wanted or aligned with one’s values; in terms of commitments, respondents were most willing to change a job (60%), somewhat willing to change a living location (48%), and generally unwilling to change a relationship (26%); what was not measured and distinguished in the data yet was which of these commitments may have been seen as a cause of the crisis, or a solution
Respondents were far more likely to explore something new than to change an existing commitment
More respondents were willing to work with a therapist than a coach
Above are some key takeaways from what questions people are willing to consider, which can help illuminate a path through which to navigate the crisis:
The strongest agreement rate amongst respondents of any question was found here, in considering what changes could make the person feel more happy and fulfilled. This is positive to see, as one of the key solutions to navigating a Quarter-Life Crisis is to make a change or changes to something in one’s life. This also infers a bias to take some action, which is supported by the turning point and transition score being the highest scored segment
Respondents were far more likely to consider their crisis alone, than to ask for help, as inferred from the lowest-ranked question of considering which people/resources could help the respondent navigate the crisis
Verbatim examples of questions people wanted answered
The following are some of the questions that were on the minds of people who experienced a Quarter-Life Crisis:
“How do I fix this?”
“What is life about?”
“what do I want in life?”
“Why does it feel so scary?”
“How can I make my life worth living?”
“How do I figure out what makes me happy?”
“How do I find a different career when I've pigeon holed myself into a specific field?”
“How do I refocus and regain courage after a major life change to begin to figure out what I want to do with my life?”
“Why do I feel like time is running out yet my life has been so overwhelming with things that I couldn't foresee it coming?”
“How can I improve my ability to be able to understand myself? I feel like I'm not myself anymore and I feel like an empty shell of a man.”