I say here we go again because some new studies looking at happiness of those with and without children have the same problem that others have. USA Today on three. Check it out.
A recent article in the journal Psychological Science reported that in a study with over 6,900 individuals collected between 1982-1999 that overall, “parents (and especially fathers) report relatively higher levels of happiness, positive emotion, and meaning in life than do non-parents.”
A second study with 329 adults found “greater well-being and more positive emotions among parents.” The third study had 186 parents with at least one child 18 or younger living at home, and “found more positive emotions when parents were caring for their children than when they weren’t.”
Basically in one study the dads were happiest, in the other two, parents were happier than non-parents.
These and many studies like them have a problem. The bad news is they do not differentiate between non-parents who want children and don’t have them, those who want kids but don’t want them yet, and those who have no kids by choice. Lumping all people who have no children together without separating out why they do not have children makes for flawed research. Why are they lumped together?
One likely reason is non-parents are assumed to be a group that does not have children yet. I have read a lot of this kind of research, and there often seems to be the hypothesis that those with children will be happier – it will fall in alignment with the pronatalist assumption that having and raising children is the key to happiness and fulfillment in life.
The good news is not all studies like this have this result. Some studies tell us that those with no children are happier. But the best good news is that when you look across all studies like this there is no one conclusion. Some studies say parents are happier. Others- those with no children (whatever the reason) are happier. What conclusion can one draw? Maybe parenthood is not “the” variable to measure for determining happiness!
Indeed. If you took “children” out of the research equation, what do you think studies would say are keys to happiness? To what brings real meaning in life?
Write your thoughts!
Will chew more on this in next post….
Tags: fulfillment, happiness, life purpose, motherhood, parenthood decision, research on women
January 25th, 2013 at 7:46 am
Hi Laura, Happy New Year! I have to wonder who actually does these so-called “happiness studies.” Are the people who conduct them truly objective, or, as I suspect, are they folks with a strong pronatalist agenda?
It’s so easy to separate the two groups of non-parents; those with no kids by circumstance (childless) and those with no kids by choice (childfree), yet many of these “studies” are still not doing this. I don’t think you have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why that is the case.
Even in the 21st century, there are still folks with the archaic mindset that says nonsense like “people can’t REALLY be happy until they have children.” The majority of these folks are on the anti-choice side of the abortion debates.
January 25th, 2013 at 8:40 am
Here’s a little nugget about something parents do which is hazardous to non-parents (and other parents):
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/22/moms-confess-to-risky-driving-even-with-babies-in-the-car/1856381/
Of course, this is risky (and illegal) behavior even if nobody else is in the car, so why is this even news?
January 25th, 2013 at 6:23 pm
I won’t bother to challenge the general conclusions. For the sake of argument, let’s say it’s true that parents tend to be happier than non-parents. As far as a general rule of happiness goes, that doesn’t bother me. These studies just suggest that I’m in the minority of people who are happier being childfree. I know enough about myself and my life to know that not having kids is the best decision for me. I don’t care all that much if that means I’m 1% of the population or 99% of the population. If I was terrified of being an outlier, I would have had kids by now….
Anyway, another possible explanation is that childfree people are more likely to be happy without children around, but they’re surrounded by people with children. Perhaps it’s the people with children and the children themselves who make childfree people unhappy. Create a larger critical mass of childfree people and we may become happier.
January 25th, 2013 at 7:51 pm
Ha! I still think in the end, kids are not’ the’ factor that determines whether someone is happier in life than not! ~L