Guide
Quarter-Life Crisis and Feeling Behind: What the Research Actually Shows
We could not find a trial of journaling for a quarter-life crisis, so a page promising that writing will fix the feeling of being behind would be ahead of the evidence. What the research does show comes in three separate pieces: in one UK survey a crisis in your twenties was something a large share of adults recalled, researchers describe two forms it takes, and across randomized studies of disclosing thoughts and feelings about personal topics the average effect was positive and small. None of the three tested writing or voice notes for people in a quarter-life crisis.
How common a crisis in your twenties is
A 2013 study in the International Journal of Behavioral Development gave a retrospective-autobiographical survey to 1,023 UK-based adults and asked about crisis episodes in three decades of adult life. A crisis in the 20 to 29 decade was reported by 39% of men and 49% of women. The figures for later decades were similar or higher: 47% of men and 51% of women for ages 30 to 39, and 46% of men and 59% of women for ages 40 to 49. Two cautions come from the study itself. People were recalling their own past, and when the rates were compared by participants' current age a recency effect in crisis reporting was apparent. These are remembered crises, not crises measured as they happened.
What the crises were about
The same survey looked at content. Across decades and genders, the most common crisis contents were divorce or relationship break-up and debt or financial difficulties. Work-related crises were more common in men, and relationship and family crises were more common in women. The study did not measure feeling behind as such. We use that phrase because it is how people describe the experience, and we are labelling the link as ours.
Locked out and locked in
A paper in Emerging Adulthood, published online in 2018, summarises earlier research on crisis in the first decade of adult life as suggesting two types of quarter-life crisis: locked-out and locked-in. Both are described as relating to the transition out of emerging adulthood. The paper then follows one woman for four years from the point she left university, with well-being and depression data gathered five times, two interviews and a structured email exchange. She went through both types. The first was locked-out: it occurred when she experienced multiple failures to find work, leading to a decline in self-esteem and to anxiety. The second was locked-in: it occurred when she felt obliged to stay in a job despite a bullying boss. This is a single case study. It illustrates the two types in detail. It does not tell you how common either one is.
What writing about it has been shown to do
A 2006 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin pooled 146 randomized studies of experimental disclosure, which it defines as disclosing information, thoughts and feelings about personal and meaningful topics. Using random effects analyses, it found that experimental disclosure is effective, with a positive and significant average r-effect size of .075. That is a small average effect, and the meta-analysis reports that a number of moderators were identified, which means the result varied with the circumstances. The studies cover personal topics in general. They are not studies of people in a quarter-life crisis.
What the research does not show
None of these three papers tested journaling, expressive writing or voice recording for a quarter-life crisis. We could not find a trial of any of those for this situation among the sources we were able to verify. The survey shows how many people recalled a crisis. It does not show that knowing this makes anyone feel less behind. The two-type model is described here through one person's four years. Recognising your own situation in it is not the same as a tested benefit from naming it. We checked each source against its indexed abstract, not the full paper, and we have left out any figure that the abstract does not state.
Where a short daily entry fits
A 60-second voice entry in Phi is not one of the interventions studied above and is not a substitute for them. The reasonable, untested use is modest: say which of the two situations sounds closer to yours, locked out or locked in, and what happened today that made it feel that way. If the low mood or anxiety is persistent or heavy, that belongs with a professional.
Sources
Robinson, O. C., & Wright, G. R. T. (2013). The prevalence, types and perceived outcomes of crisis episodes in early adulthood and midlife: A structured retrospective-autobiographical study. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 37(5), 407–416.Robinson, O. C. (2019). A longitudinal mixed-methods case study of quarter-life crisis during the post-university transition: Locked-out and locked-in forms in combination. Emerging Adulthood, 7(3), 167–179.Frattaroli, J. (2006). Experimental disclosure and its moderators: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(6), 823–865.