DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

The above diagram shows four identifiable age groups at which crisis emerges and
peaks:
1. 25-26: Camilla and Rachel are both 25 when their crisis peaks, Lilly and Jack
are 26.
2. 29-32: George and Frances are 29, Victoria, Rob and Claire are 30, Gemma
and Vern are 31, Frank is 32.
3. 34-36 (Angela, Neil, Leon and Dan are age 34, Ben is 35, Mark, Guy and
Violet are 36)
4. 38-40 (Mary and Anne are 38).
8 of the crises sampled fall between the ages of 29 and 32, which gives
support to Levinson’s assertion about the relationship between crisis and the Age 30
Transition (ages 28-33). It also supports other empirical studies that have also found
the Age 30 Transition to be a prominent period of crisis in early adulthood (Reinke,
Holmes and Harris, 1985; Fagan and Ayers, 1983). The two crises at age 38 fit into
the early stages of the midlife transition, and so are also predicted by Levinson’s
model. But the other two groups are not predicted by Levinson’s model, and they
point to two other crisis-prone periods that Levinson did not highlight. There is a
period around ages 25-26, and another around 34-36, both of which are indicative of
“mid-season” crisis – the first in the middle of the Entering the Adult World period,
and the second in the Settling Down period. The 34-36 period has as many cases as
the 29-32 period and is a span of just two years. This suggests that crisis is spread
across the early adult phase more diversely than Levinson may have predicted, and
that there is a mid-twenties or mid-thirties transition for some as opposed to an age-30
transition. Given the numbers in the sample, the distribution is no more than
suggestive of a general age distribution of early adult crisis; it may still be that with a
larger sample a random distribution would have emerged. However the age
distribution is suggestive of a non-random pattern nonetheless and warrants further
investigation.
10.5 The Nature of Crisis: Reflections
What can be said with some confidence given the data from this thesis, is
that crisis occurs within the context of a culture, the context of an individual
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