Midlife Crisis - Occurrence

Occurrence

For the approximately 10% of middle aged adults who go through an age-related midlife crisis, the condition is most common ranging from the ages of 40-60 (a large study in the 1990s found that the average age at onset of a self-described midlife crisis was 46). Midlife crises last about 3–10 years in men and 2–5 years in women. A midlife crisis could be caused by aging itself, or aging in combination with changes, problems, or regrets over:

• work or career (or lack thereof)
• spousal relationships (or lack thereof)
• maturation of children (or lack thereof)
• aging or death of parents
• physical changes associated with aging

Midlife crises seem to affect men and women differently. An American cultural stereotype of a man going through a midlife crisis is that he buys a sports car. Researchers have proposed that the triggers for midlife crisis differ between men and women, with male midlife crises more likely to be caused by work issues and female crises by personal evaluations of their roles. Even though there are differences between why men and women go through a midlife crisis, the emotions they both encounter can be extremely frightening.