Crise du quart de vie

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A finir de traduire à partir de [en:Quarter-life crisis].

La crise du quart de vie, ou quarterlife crisis est un terme utilisé pour caractériser la période de la vie suivant immédiatement les changements importants de l'adolescence, habituellement entre 21 et 29 ans. Ce terme a été choisi par analogie avec la crise de milieu de vie, midlife crisis. Il est aujourd'hui reconnu par de nombreux thérapistes et professionnels de la santé mentale.

Alexandra Robbins et Abby Wilner furent les premiers à étudier et donner un nom à ce phénomène, avec leur livre intitulé: Quarterlife Crisis, the Unique Challenges of Life in your Twenties (crise du quart de vie, les seuls défis de la vie à la vingtaine). Ce phénomène fut aussi identifié au Japon et porte le nom de "freeter".

[modifier] Aspect Émotionnels

Quelques caractéristiques de la crise de quart de vie peuvent être classifiées comme suit:

  • le sentiment de ne pas être "suffisamment bon" parce que la personne ne trouve pas un emploi à son niveau d'exigence académique ou professionnel,
  • frustration par rapport aux relations, au monde du travail,
  • confusion d'identité
  • insécurité par rapport à son futur proche
  • incertitude par rapport à ses propres accomplissements
  • réévaluation de ses relations interpersonnelles avec des proches
  • déception par rapport à son travail
  • nostalgie de sa vie à l'université, au lycée ou au collège
  • Tendance rester fermement sur ses opinions
  • boredom with social interactions
  • financially-rooted stress
  • solitude
  • désir d'avoir des enfants
  • a sense that everyone is, somehow, doing better than you

These emotions and insecurities are not uncommon at this age, nor at any age 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". 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 they imagined. Furthermore, the qualifications they have spent so much time and money earning are not likely to prepare them for this disillusionment.

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. High underemployment for college graduates contributed to this problem.Modèle:Fact 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 ups-and-downs of adolescence and college life subside, many affected by quarter-life crisis experience a "graying" of emotion. While emotional interactions may be intense in a high school or college environment – where everyone is roughly the same age and hormones are highly active – these interactions become subtler and more private in adult life.

Furthermore, a contributing factor 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. Emerging adults eventually learn these social skills, but this process – sometimes compared to learning another language – is often highly stressful.