Coping With Midlife Crisis: A Cross-Sectional Study of Ondo City, Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Midlife crisis occurs when people begin to lose confidence and have feelings of anxiety or disappointment about life in middle age. It is a transition that takes place as people grow older while struggling with the passing of their youth. This study examines the psychological and emotional impacts of midlife crises and the coping strategies employed by participants. The study was conducted among 348 participants from a city in southwestern Nigeria. Primary data was retrieved through questionnaire administration, while the study was explained using the retrospective denial theory. Stress topped the psychological and emotional impacts of midlife crisis among the participants (61.2%), followed by anxiety (59.9%), and low self-esteem was the least (3.4%). In order to cope with a midlife crisis, the majority of study participants (86.1%) used prayer as the most effective coping strategy, followed by forgetting the past and moving on (79.2%), and accepting their fate (47.5%) as the least effective. The study concludes that almost all the participants in the study have experienced midlife crisis. The feeling that life has not turned out to be topped as the cause of midlife crisis, with excessive thoughts about childhood being the least. With regards to the psychological and emotional impacts of midlife crisis on participants, stress was the highest, followed by anxiety, and low self-esteem was the least, while prayer topped the list of coping strategies employed by participants in the study. We recommend that people who experience midlife crises seek the help of therapists who can help them sort out feelings about past events, manage current stress, and plan their future.