Do kiddos make you happier? … soon to be published research suggests …it depends…
Saturday, October 28, 2023. Sometimes it’s fun to take a peak at research that is in the queue waiting to be published. I’m looking forward to discussing these ideas with Malcolm Collins next month.
Does having little creatures make you happier?
It depends on where in the industrialized West you call home.
Let’s start with the good old USA… right now, non-parent humans are happier than parenting humans, particularly in the USA.
The happiness gap between parents and non-parents is greatest in the USA as compared with 22 other industrialized nations.
The reason could just come down to kitchen table politics. The USA is fairy unique for promoting policies that don’t give a rat’s ass about struggling families, argues the report prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families.
Dr. Matthew Andersson, one of the study’s co-authors, pointed out a fundamental deficit in American family support. He said:
“The United States, without any standard paid leave available to mothers or parents — or any standard vacation or sick leave to support raising a dependent child — falls strikingly behind all the other countries we examined in terms of providing for parents’ happiness and overall well-being.”
Important breaking findings on a cultural shift…
In countries where government policies provide more support for families, parents may even be slightly happier than non-parents.
Data was collected from several European countries, Russia, the US, New Zealand and Australia.
The intersection of public policy and social science research can be delightful. For example, cash incentives did not work as well as offering parents flexibility and agency. Go figure? The researchers explained:
“Another striking finding was that giving money to parents in child allowances or monthly payments had less effect on parental happiness than giving them the tools — such as flexible work time — to combine employment with parenting.”
Here’s another cultural myth. Having larger families had relatively little influence on marital satisfaction, or well-being. Is the third kid a ho-hum non-event?
Americans were generally found to be overall, mostly happy humans, especially when compared to the …French.
Another comment on how little creatures impact human happiness. But this field of endeavor is challenging. For example, Not all studies, though, agree that non-parents are happier.
For example, the Nelson Study from a decade ago:
“…research has found that, on average, parents feel better than non-parents each day and derive more pleasure from caring for their children than from other activities (Nelson et al.,. 2013).
Fathers, in particular, derive high levels of positive emotions and happiness from their children.”
There is also some evidence that first and second children provide the biggest boost to happiness, although it is relatively short-lived (:Mikko Myrskylä, et al., 2014). Humans can get used to anything.
“First and second children provide parents a boost in happiness up to a year before they are born but the third does not, new research finds.
The increase in happiness lasts around one year from birth, after which some parents’ happiness returns to its usual pre-baby levels.”
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, when it comes to making little creatures, no one is thinking past the end of their own limited preferences, it seems.
Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
The study is to soon be published in the American Journal of Sociology.
Mikko Myrskylä, Rachel Margolis; Happiness: Before and After the Kids. Demography 1 October 2014; 51 (5): 1843–1866. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-014-0321-x
Nelson SK, Kushlev K, English T, Dunn EW, Lyubomirsky S. In defense of parenthood: children are associated with more joy than misery. Psychol Sci. 2013 Jan 1;24(1):3-10. doi: 10.1177/0956797612447798. Epub 2012 Nov 30. PMID: 23201970.
