Assessment of Youths’ Quality of Life in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan: Policy Recommendation Study
Keywords:
Gilgit-Baltistan, Youth, Quality of Life, Physical health, Psychological wellbeing, Environment, Social relationshipsAbstract
This study was conducted to assess youths’ quality of life in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), Pakistan. A cross-sectional research design was used to collect data from youths from all districts of GB. A total of 635 youths (boys=278, girls=357) with the age range 18 to 24 years (M=20.01, SD=1.50) were selected using purposive stratified sampling technique and WHOQOL-BREF was used to assess their quality of life. To interpret youths’ quality of life scores, we used the cut-off scores recommended by Hawthorne, Herrman, and Murphy (2006) based on population norms. When compared with norms, youths’ in Gilgit-Baltistan reported lower levels of perceived quality of life in terms of physical health, psychological wellbeing, and environment. However, they reported a higher level of perceived social relationships. The effect size is small for physical health, psychological wellbeing, and social relationships but it is large for the environment domain. Youths’ gender and family income significantly influenced their social relationships and environment domain of quality of life. We discussed our findings according to the cultural context and recommendations are suggested for policy-makers as guidelines for initiating programs to enhance youths’ quality of life in GB.
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