Quality of Life Indicators of University Students in Hungary

Abstract

Quality of life is a new research field in the postmodern world. Results show that there are several factors beyond the material world which have an impact on our happiness and which can be influenced and developed by us. To transfer the knowledge that can help improve quality of life requires authentic channels. One of these channels could be the stratum of educated intellectuals as an influential group of society, but they are authentic only if their quality of life is really better than nonqualified population’s quality of life. We investigated this issue in Hungary. On the basis of empirical research, we compared university students’ quality of life indicators with those of common people of similar ages. The objective of this paper is to present the relevant results of this research, which show that a) the examined indicators of quality of life are not more favorable with university students than the same indicators with the non-student population; b) the quality of life indicators of female university students are worse in some respects than those of non-student women; c) the impact of some psychological factors is stronger with university students than with common persons. The major conclusion of this paper is that an appropriate intervention is needed in health education programs at universities in order to contribute to the improvement of students’ quality of life.