Abstract Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects young adults during a critical stage of developing independence. While medical and psychosocial aspects are well studied, less is known about how IBD influences participation in daily activities and its relationship with quality of life (QoL). Participation reflects how often and how well individuals engage in activities and is strongly linked to QoL—both key health outcomes. This study compared participation and QoL between young adults with and without IBD and examined their associations. Methods A total of 166 young adults aged 18–35 completed self-report questionnaires assessing sociodemographic characteristics, participation, QoL, and life satisfaction. Participants were classified into an IBD group (n = 63) and a healthy control group (n = 103). Group differences were examined using Mann–Whitney and MANOVA analyses, and Pearson correlations were used to explore associations between participation and QoL. Results Participants with IBD demonstrated significant difficulties in several daily activities, including self-care tasks (p = .003) and reduced engagement in domestic life activities such as household maintenance (p = .012) and childcare (p = .032). No significant differences were found in overall frequency, performance, or pleasure between groups. However, the IBD group assigned significantly lower meaning to daily activities (M = 5.49 vs. 5.23, p = .007). They also reported lower psychological QoL (M = 13.14 vs. 14.56, p = .001), lower environmental QoL (M = 14.14 vs. 15.27, p = .003), and lower life satisfaction (M = 4.22 vs. 5.09, p .001) compared with controls. Strong positive correlations were found between participation (performance, meaning, pleasure) and QoL domains, including psychological (r = .51), environmental (r = .54), and global QoL (r = .56). 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Tal Ilsar (Thu,) studied this question.