The Childhood, Adolescence and Adulthood Experiences of Adult Only Children and their Interpersonal Relationships

Abstract

It appears that the only children are raised in a unique way of life and differentiate from children with siblings concerning their psychosocial experiences. In this study, how adult only children perceive their only-child experiences in the context of psychosocial experiences and how they shape those experiences in their interpersonal relationships were discussed. The experiences of being an only child were evaluated by comparing childhood, adolescence and adulthood. This study was conducted in a phenomenological research design, one of the qualitative research types. In this study, there were 10 only children, five females and five males, aged between 20 and 26 using the criterion sampling technique. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed with interpretive phenomenological analysis. Toward the findings of the study, a framework was structured on how the only child-experiences are interpreted in adulthood. The main themes of the research were being an only child, the only child in family relationships, the only child in friendship, and the only child experiences in the past and present. From the experiences of being an only child, parenting processes of the only children can be investigated.

Keywords

• Only child
• personality traits
• interpersonal relations
• interpretive phenomenological analysis