Čtvrtživotní krize, její výskyt a prediktory u českých mladých dospělých

Abstract

Quarter-life crisis, which occurs during young adulthood (18-35 years; Robinson, 2019), is a phenomenon broadly discussed in both popular and scientific psychology but so far rather neglected in Czech psychological research. This crisis is connected to feelings of infinite possibilities, identity reappraisal, and inconsistency between accomplished life choices and subjective feelings of immaturity. The present study takes as its point of departure O. C. Robinson's model of quarter-life crisis, which describes two phases: the locked-out crisis, which occurs approximately in mid-twenties, and the locked-in crisis, which emerges at the beginning of thirties. Previous, mainly qualitative studies identified several factors contributing to the development of quarter-life crisis in an individual: lack of social support, financial dissatisfaction, and stressful life events (Atwood & Scholtz, 2008; Stapleton, 2012; Wethington, Kessler, & Pixley, 2004). Therefore, the study adopted a quantitative design and set out to examine the occurrence of quarter-life crisis and its predictors in Czech young people. The sample consisted of 393 people aged 21-30 years (M = 24.87 years; SD = 2.63; 71 men (18 %) and 322 women (82 %), who completed an online questionnaire on quarter-life crisis (CSQ-9; Petrov et al., 2019), social support (MOS; Sherbourne & Steward, 1991), financial satisfaction (DŽS; Fahrenberg et al., 2000), and strategies of coping with the transition from adolescence to adulthood (CSI-short; Tobin, 1995). The results indicated that 50.7 % of respondents had fully experienced a quarter-life crisis; 26.3 % of respondents had experienced a partial crisis, and 23% of respondents had not experienced a crisis. In addition, women experienced quarter-life crisis more often than men (t = 3.06; df = 391; p < 0.01; Hedge's, g = -0.40); people with university education had a lower level of quarter-life crisis (compared to high school with school-leaving exam educated people; F= 6.29; df = 390; p < 0.05; p 2 = 0.02) and so had lower level employed participants with university education compared to students (regardless of the level of education) and employed participants with high-school with school-leaving exam level of education (F = 4.35; df = 390; p < 0.05; p 2 = 0.01). The occurrence of quarter-life crisis among Czech young people is similar to other countries where the phenomenon is already being studied. The results of the regression model showed that significant predictors of quarter-life crisis included low social support, low financial satisfaction, and more frequent use of strategies of coping with the transition from adolescence to adulthood oriented to emotions. Another significant predictor - lower age - corresponds with the two-phase model of the quarter-life crisis (Robinson, 2016, 2019), in which people experience the first phase (locked-out crisis) in their mid-twenties and the second phase (locked-in crisis) in their thirties. The only insignificant predictor was coping strategies oriented to the problem (adaptive and non-adaptive). A comparison of the three groups according to the level of quarter-life crisis - full quarter-life crisis, partial crisis, and absent crisis - showed that persons who experienced full quarter-life crisis and those with an absent quarter-life crisis differed in the levels of social support, financial satisfaction, coping strategies oriented to emotions, and gender. Other, less distinct groups in the level of crisis experience differed in lower financial satisfaction and more frequent use of strategies of coping with transition from adolescence to adulthood oriented to emotions (full crisis vs. partial crisis), and lower social support and more frequent use of non-adaptive strategies of coping with transition from adolescence to adulthood oriented to emotions (partial crisis vs. absent crisis). (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]