Do Men and Women Differ in Their Quality of Life? Evidence from Young Adult Only Children

The developmental patterns of only children differ from that of siblings in many ways. Accordingly, the present research investigates whether men and women differ in their overall quality of life among young adult only children. For this research, 74 young adult only children among which 37 were male and 37 were female with the age range of 18-35 years were selected through purposive sampling method. The World Health Organization- Quality Of Life (QOL) BREF 26 items were used to access the life quality of the participants. The results reveal that majority of only children exhibit average level of life satisfaction. It was also found that there was no male and female difference in their quality of life among the only children. It also shows that there were inter-correlations between the dimensions of quality of life scale. These findings suggest that gender is not a salient determinant of perceived QOL among only children. The absence of gender effects implies that programs aimed at enhancing QOL for only children can be designed as gender-neutral, focusing instead on modifiable factors such as social support, academic/occupational stress and environmental resources.