Objective of the Study

Quarter-life crisis is a phenomenon that first emerged from mass media and popular culture, and since then investigated through several academic studies. It occurs approximately between 20-35 ages and refers to the challenges of achieving steady “adult” roles or fitting in current life roles (Robinson, 2016; Robinson, 2019). Early adults may experience intense negative feelings and question their identity during quarter-life crisis (Robinson, Wright, and Smith, 2013).

Tiktok is an application widely used by teenagers and twentysomethings. It is not necessarily based on following familiar people and building a social network. Thus, they might express themselves and their experiences more freely on the app than by speaking to a researcher or a mental health professional. Twentysomethings may have trouble receiving professional help about their quarter-life crisis due to their financial status (Robbins and Wilner, 2001). Tiktok may provide a platform for them to share their experiences and support each other.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the content of the hashtag #quarterlifecrisis on TikTok. For this purpose, the videos on this hashtag, and comments on some of the videos were analyzed.

Methodology

The study’s design includes both manifest content analysis and latent pattern content analysis. The videos with the hashtag #quarterlifecrisis were gathered by utilizing TikTok's discover feature and the hashtag search of #quarterlifecrisis. A sample of the top 100 most-viewed videos will be analyzed. The

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hashtag had 216.1 million cumulative views until January 2023. Only English-language videos are included in this sample. The researchers recorded the date of posting as well as the engagement data such as the number of views, comments, shares, and likes. All videos tagged with #quarterlifecrisis will be transcribed, analyzed, and coded for the presence of additional content categories. Aside from the content analysis of the sample of videos, the comments written down on some posts will be also subjected to content analysis.

Expected Results

The overarching purpose of this study is to investigate the quarter-life crisis experiences of early adults. Through analyzing the manifest and the latent content of the TikTok videos tagged with #quarterlifecrisis, researchers aim to find genuine self-expressions of challenges early adults confront as they navigate adulthood without know-how.

Conclusion

It is anticipated that the findings will align with previous research studies on the quarter-life crisis. In this section, we will address some suggestions for mental health professionals as well as researchers by taking into account the results and related literature.