Does Midlife Crisis Only Happen to Forty-somethings?

The midlife crisis is firmly fixed in popular belief as something that happens between the ages of forty and fifty.

But research shows that more than half of (self) reported midlife crises occur before 40 or after 50.

The data collected in the Midlife Development in the United States survey shows that while 34% of people who said they'd had a midlife crisis said it happened in their forties, 27% said they had it in their thirties and 19% in their fifties. And 20% said they'd had it before 30 or after 60.

Researchers also noted that "The average age reported for a midlife crisis shifted up with the age of respondents who believed they had had one, with respondents over age 60 reporting midlife crises in their fifties and even their sixties."

It appears to us that's because "midlife crisis" was determined by the interview subject, and people inevitably combine "crises that happened in midlife" with the "traditional" mortality-induced period of turmoil.

For instance, our look at the data shows that the largest groups of sixty-somethings said that their crisis was related to a death or personal health issues. Few crises experienced from 60-69 fit the traditional definition of "sudden changes in personal goals and lifestyle, brought about by the realization of aging, physical decline, or entrapment in unwelcome, restrictive roles."

Some thirty-somethings did report classic concerns: realizing goals will go unfulfilled or fear of getting older. But the largest group said their crisis was due to divorce -- something most common in the thirties, but not unique to any age group.

While these may not have been "midlife crises" as defined by psychologists, they felt like midlife crises to the people going through them.

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Sources:

"Turning Points in Adulthood," by Wethington, Kessler, and Pixley, in the book "How Healthy Are We? A National Study of Well-Being at Midlife" edited by Brim, Ryff, Kessler. Chapter available online here.

"Expecting Stress: Americans and the 'Midlife Crisis'" by Elaine Wethington, in Motivation and Emotion Volume 24, Number 2, 2000. Available online here.

Wethington, Elaine, Ronald C. Kessler, and Orville G. Brim. MIDLIFE DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES (MIDUS): PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIENCES FOLLOW-UP STUDY, 1998 [Computer file]. ICPSR02911-v1. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Computer-Assisted Survey Team [producer], 2000. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2005-03-25. Data available for online analysis here.