Lived Experiences of an Only Child

Birth ranking has been used to describe the personality of the eldest, middle and the youngest child, and how they act the way they do because of the birth order thatthey were born into. This is not the case for an only child. An onlychild’s personality is said to be more complicated compared to those with siblings.Hence, this phenomenological study aimed to understand the self-perception, livedexperiences, issues, and challenges of an only child. Eight participants (five malesand three females) ranging from 15-21 years old were chosen through purposiveand snowball sampling techniques. One-on-one interviews were conductedutilizing a set of semi-structured self-made interview questions, and then the datawere recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through thematic analysis. Six themesemerged for an only child’slived experiences, namely: academically contented,positive interpersonal relationship, emotionally satisfied, inclined to sports, lack ofspiritual convictions, and feels compensated through friends; three themes foran only child’s self-perception such as: the priority, lack of companionship, andemotionally weak; three themes emerged for the issues and problems that an onlychild faces, specifically: no issues in general, sibling issues, and distant relationshipwith the parents; lastly, two themes emerged for their challenges, particularly, beingalone in supporting parents and lack of freedom. This study can be an informativetool to help practitioners in dealing with individuals who are an only child. It isrecommended that a deeper study on an only child’s performance during adulthoodin terms of career and family be done.