Uncovering the psychological mechanisms behind quarter-life crisis and suicide cognitions

Young adults may experience a quarter-life crisis due to challenges they face in education, work, and relationships. Individuals experiencing a quarter-life crisis face numerous mental health issues, including psychological distress, entrapment, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation. However, evidence in the literature explaining the processes leading from quarter-life crisis to suicide is limited.

This study examined the mediating and moderating roles of entrapment, hopelessness, depression, perceived social support, and resilience in the relationship between the quarter-life crisis and suicide cognitions. The study sample consisted of 563 participants (349 females) aged 17–35 (Mage = 25.55) from Türkiye. According to the research results, which tested the theoretical models, the quarter-life crisis was found to be a significant predictor of suicide cognitions.

Additionally, entrapment, hopelessness, depression, perceived social support, and resilience were found to play significant and decisive roles in the relationship between the quarter-life crisis and suicide cognitions. Therefore, to prevent suicidal thoughts and behaviors in individuals experiencing a quarter-life crisis, it is necessary to reduce entrapment, hopelessness, and depression, and to increase perceived social support and resilience. The research findings make original contributions to the literature examining the relationship between the quarter-life crisis and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

We are grateful to all participants in this study. Department of Guidance and Psychological Counselling, Siirt University, Siirt, Türkiye Department of Child Care and Youth Services, Bingöl University, Bingöl, Türkiye Department of Psychology, Sakarya University, Youth Studies Research & Application Center, Sakarya University, Sakarya University Technology Development Zones Management Inc. (Sakarya Teknokent), Sakarya, Türkiye The authors declare no competing interests. This study was carried out in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its subsequent amendments or comparable ethical guidelines.

Ethical approval was obtained for all procedures from the Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee of Siirt University (Approval ID: 7610). At the beginning of the study, participants were asked to confirm their informed consent by checking a designated box on the online platform. Participation in the questionnaire was entirely voluntary, and respondents were informed that they could withdraw from the study at any time without any penalty.

To ensure confidentiality, all data were anonymized prior to analysis. To enhance the clarity and comprehensibility of the manuscript, DeepL was also used. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.