Quarterlife Crisis
Understanding and supporting young adults through the ‘quarterlife crisis’ (October 2013- May 2017).
Purpose
During transition to adulthood, young people can experience a quarerlife crisis when they have difficulty finding their place in the world. The aim of this project is to understand the experience of quarterlife crisis among young people from India and the UK.
Process
Participants are between 22-30 years old and self-define as experiencing difficulty finding their place in the world. Sixteen are from the UK, of which eight are women and twelve are university educated. Eight are from Assam, India, of which four are women and five are university educated. Participants were asked to prepare for their interview by taking photographs, or selecting images, to help explain their challenging transition to adulthood. All took part in a one-to-one research interview in which they were invited to create a time-line of relevant events and to place their images on the time-time during interview. This material was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
Outcomes
Presented here are the three main themes of the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis conducted for project ‘Quarterlife Crisis’:
Theme 1: Perceived standards and unfulfilled expectations
Theme 2: Becoming and knowing oneself
Theme 3: Coping responses.
Each theme is illustrated with example images and quotes from three different participants, including women and men, Indian and British, and those who attended and did not attend university. All content is anonymised.
THEME 1: Perceived standards and unfulfilled expectations
Find out moreTHEME 2: Becoming and knowing oneself
Find out moreTHEME 3: Coping responses
Find out moreCases
Quarterlife Crisis
Case 1: ISHA
GENDER: Female
NATIONALITY: Indian
AGE: 26 years old
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: MA
Quarterlife Crisis
Case 2: AVRIL
GENDER: Female
NATIONALITY: British
AGE: 28 years old
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: BA (Hons)
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Niti
GENDER: Female
NATIONALITY: Indian
AGE: 28 years old
Not university educated
This is what Niti said about this picture: “We enjoyed a lot. When I leave the office I will miss it all. Here no one is of the same age. Some are younger. Some are older ((smiles)). Some are of a very young age- like really young- 19 years girl. But still my friend ((giggles)). So that’s what I felt that. Now I think that if I thought like this before- many years I spent alone I didn’t have to spend alone.”
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Ishita
GENDER: Female
NATIONALITY: Indian
AGE: 26 years old
University educated
This is what Ishita said about this picture: “I went to [names a state in India] for my higher education. And that’s when I met some close friends and they became important part of my life. My parents were there but there were times when my- my friends were my major source of support more than my parents because that’s the time when I had to make my own decisions and I believe my friends had a huge role to play in that. So I would mark this as 17 to probably 24.”
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Aman
GENDER: Male
NATIONALITY: Indian
AGE: 29 years old
University educated
This is what Aman said about this picture: “Because there I was alone. I had no one to make happy. There I got in touch with myself and got to know how sad I am. I always used to make paintings like these. Like the guy by the sea side throwing- this is actually a story. Like you see he’s clenching a stone. It’s like going to the sea and just screaming out. Taking out the frustration. Finally tired. Just lying down and let the sea calm you down.”
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Raj
GENDER: Male
NATIONALITY: Indian
AGE: 24 years old
Not university educated
This is what Raj said about this picture: “So I thought next time I will not fall in love. So then means I was very down. So I came and joined this office. So after that what happened means I got friends and they told me- I told them what happened in my past. So one of my friends said- his name is [names his friend]- he told me that I- means you’re so simple that people- you’re so easy that people easily-in Assamese (struggling for words). [Interviewer: Take advantage?] Means you should be tough. Means- he told me to change myself. So now it’s ((places a photo with his friends)).”
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Bill
GENDER: Male
NATIONALITY: British
AGE: 23 years old
University educated
This is what Bill said about this picture: “I did really, really well out of maths. Like fantastic out of maths. And nobody could really explain really you know. I was just interested in things like that. So- and I was interested in everything as like being like a mechanical process like everything you know being able to be compartmentalised and explained you know. Very methodically. So that’s what that was all about because you know it sort of- sort of illustrated that. I thought- so I put that there ((places the photo)). So that’s always sort of you know prevailed. And that’s always been a- a central theme.”
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Jack
GENDER: Male
NATIONALITY: British
AGE: 22 years old
Not university educated
This is what Jack said about this picture: “I didn’t really go to school for the last two years. That’s what the next picture’s for. Like it’s hardcore pawn but as in a chess pawn not like- Yeah so ‘cos you know I didn’t really like being told what to do and stuff. I’ve always been annoyed by people presuming that I’m either not intelligent enough to understand why I’m being told to do something or not intelligent enough to do it and they just they don’t explain anything. They just demand that you do things. So I kind of broke out a little bit and was a bit- I say ‘a bit’- I was a lot rebellious in quotation marks…”
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Hannah
GENDER: Female
NATIONALITY: British
AGE: 27 years old
University educated
This is what Hannah said about this picture: “Going to put that one there. Was we understand you are forty and still not married. So that’s a cat. You know a lot of people measure success on whether you have a partner or not and I don’t agree with that.”
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Denver
GENDER: Male
NATIONALITY: British
AGE: 22 years old
University educated
This is what Denver said about this picture: “…It just relates to what inspires me. Whether- I don’t know how to explain it properly. I think it’s the scale of it like what it means and what there is in it. Like I wanted to be an- here’s a good way of linking it in. When I was little I wanted to be an architect because I think buildings and all that- that provides like if I see a nice building or see a nice city I take inspiration from that. When I was little all I wanted to be was an architect. I used to draw buildings all the time […] when I was doing all that drawing- I know you’re naive when you’re a kid but I’d have been like ‘Yeah. Definitely. I can do that. That’s easy.’ So perhaps as I’ve got older I’ve become more pessimistic and that has changed my- changed which way I’m heading…”
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Olivia
GENDER: Female
NATIONALITY: British
AGE: 23 years old
University educated
This is what Olivia said about this picture: “…perhaps it was just kind of the way that the river just sort of represents a kind of like tranquillity for me. He lives on the river and we see like little boats going up and down sometimes which is fun but I’ve just always been kind of calmed by water and stuff and while I think in these pictures I was so like obsessed with like going ‘Oh my God. My house is a mess. I hate it.’ and to be able to look out beyond that now and just enjoy my surroundings and feel calm…”
QUARTERLIFE CRISIS
PSEUDONYM: Sarah
GENDER: Female
NATIONALITY: British
AGE: 23 years old
Not university educated
This is what Sarah said about this picture: “…I’m treating myself ((laughs)). Once a month I go for a massage because just a way of like relaxing. De-stressing. Just two hours when I can just lie there and not have to worry about anything else. So yes that’s kind of what I do. That’s ever since I’ve qualified I’ve done that just to relax”.
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