The main objective of this study was to examine gender differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among 11-year-old students in Kosovo, using the standardized instrument KIDSCREEN-27. Given the sociocultural context of Kosovo, where traditional gender norms may influence children's emotional expression, school engagement, and perceptions of well-being, this study offers an important insight into how boys and girls experience late childhood. An additional objective was to contribute to the regional and international literature on HRQoL in late childhood, with a particular focus on gender-based patterns. A total of 143 students, including 82 boys and 61 girls, from several primary schools in the Republic of Kosovo, participated in this study. The KIDSCREEN-27 questionnaire was self-completed by the students, and the raw data were processed according to the official guidelines, converted into Rasch-scaled values, and subsequently standardized into T-scores, which represent the standardized assessment of the measurement results. To explore gender differences across five distinct dimensions of health-related quality of life among school-aged students, a one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted, followed by univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings based on Wilks' Lambda (λ = 0.800, F(5,135) = 6.77, p < .001) indicate a statistically significant impact of gender on health-related quality of life, suggesting that gender has a moderate influence on how children assess their quality of life across various dimensions. The univariate analysis showed that boys scored significantly higher in physical well-being, emotional well-being, and school functioning. However, no statistically significant gender differences were found in family relationships and the social support dimension, suggesting a stable social support network for both genders at this age. In conclusion, these findings highlight meaningful gender-specific patterns in HRQoL among Kosovar students, emphasizing the need for educators, school psychologists, and public health professionals to consider gender-sensitive strategies when designing programs that support children's emotional, physical, and academic development.
Xhemajli et al. (Thu,) studied this question.