When Everything Keeps Changing: How Social Disruptions Shape Emerging Adulthood

Emerging adulthood is a time full of excitement, growth, and exploration. It’s also a season marked by transition after transition: moving out, starting college or a new job, ending relationships, forming new ones, and constantly adapting to unfamiliar environments. While these changes help shape identity and foster independence, they also come with a cost particularly when it comes to relationships, loneliness, and mental health.

In a recent study exploring the lived experiences of emerging adults, six powerful themes emerged that show how social disruptions deeply affect young people’s emotional well-being. Today I will be discussing the academic journal A phenomenological analysis of emerging adults’ social group disruptions.

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Moving Away from Home Changes Everything

For most participants, moving out of their childhood homes marked their first big social disruption. It wasn’t just a change in zip code it was a loss of familiarity, of in-person family time, and of cultural connections that were deeply woven into everyday life. Participants shared that texting or video calling their families just didn’t replace being physically present. The absence of small, everyday rituals like sharing meals or showing up for milestones left many feeling distant, not just geographically, but emotionally too.

One participant expressed guilt for not reaching out more. Another felt heartbroken after missing a family member’s miscarriage because he simply “wasn’t in the loop.” These stories highlight how moving away can unintentionally erode family closeness, especially when cultural traditions or mental health struggles aren’t openly shared.

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Frequent Moves Disrupt Friendships and Community

While the first move away from home is significant, the changes don’t stop there. Most participants had moved at least five times since leaving home often because of internships, school programs, jobs, or housing instability. Each move meant leaving behind roommates, classmates, coworkers, and the communities they’d just begun to feel connected to.

These frequent transitions created a sense of instability. One participant described the cycle as “socially restarting” every time they moved. Even when they stayed put, their friends often left, leaving them back at square one. It became harder to trust that any social group would last. This revolving door of relationships disrupted more than friendships it impacted their sense of identity, stability, and emotional grounding.

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Changing Friend Groups Increases Loneliness

All participants described experiencing loneliness, especially during the in between moments after losing one social group but before forming deep connections in a new one. Many struggled to form close bonds quickly. Even when they joined new school or work communities, those connections often stayed surface-level.

Some said they felt like they were just “saying hi” or making small talk, but never really being seen. Others didn’t even try to invest, believing that the relationships were too temporary to be worth the effort. Over time, this hesitation turned into a self fulfilling prophecy: by expecting social disconnection, they often avoided deeper involvement, which only amplified their loneliness.

One striking quote compared their desire for connection to turning on a social faucet, only to find that no water came out: “I’m thirsty,” one participant said. “Where is it?”

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Loneliness and Instability Take a Toll on Mental Health

While not all participants experienced clinical levels of mental health symptoms, most reported feeling sad, anxious, or emotionally drained during periods of intense transition especially when multiple disruptions happened at once. A few participants shared that their lowest mental health points occurred after a breakup and a move and losing a job or friend group, all in a short period.

Without the stability of close relationships, many struggled with sleep, appetite, motivation, and a general lack of joy. Even if they had new people around them, the lack of emotional depth in those relationships left them feeling unsupported. For some, their emotional wellbeing only improved after building new communities that felt more stable and meaningful.

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Social Disruptions Can Lead to Growth, Too

Not all disruptions were negative. Several participants found silver linings in the chaos. Some moved away from unhealthy environments or toxic relationships. Others used solitude as an opportunity to explore their identities, rediscover personal values, or start fresh.

Breaking from old social expectations gave them the freedom to grow. One participant shared that separating from a sorority helped her realign with what mattered most. Another said that being physically alone gave her space to figure out who she really was.

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What This All Means: An Understanding of Loneliness in Early Adulthood

This study adds depth to what we already know about the challenges of emerging adulthood. While loneliness is often associated with social isolation, this research shows that even people with broad social networks can feel deeply lonely when their relationships lack permanence or depth. Constant transitions especially ones that disrupt social groups create a sense of rootlessness that’s hard to shake.

It also challenges the idea that emerging adulthood is simply a time of carefree independence. Many participants expressed a longing for lasting friendships, stable communities, and emotional closeness things we don’t often associate with “young people on the move.” For some, the dream wasn’t freedom from relationships, but rather freedom to build relationships that lasted.

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Final Thoughts

If you’re in your 20s and feeling like your friendships keep falling apart, or that you’re starting over again and again you’re not alone. The struggle to find belonging and consistency during early adulthood is real, but it’s also deeply human. And with time, intention, and the right support, lasting connection is possible even in the midst of change.