A team of researchers at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus found that life satisfaction doesn’t actually depend on whether someone has children. They found no difference in life satisfaction between parents and people without children.
The results, published in Evolutionary Psychology, contradict the common idea that children are a constant source of positive emotions. What’s more, the birth of a child actually leads to a drop in couples’ satisfaction with their relationship.
“These results do not support the hypothesis that parenthood is positively linked to hedonic well-being (levels of positive emotions) and life satisfaction.”
How did the team reach that conclusion?
The researchers analyzed data from more than 5,000 people across 10 countries. 38.5% of the participants had children.
All volunteers completed questionnaires that measured two kinds of well-being: hedonic well-being, which is tied to everyday feelings like happiness, sadness, and loneliness, and eudaimonic well-being, which is tied to having a sense of purpose in life.
The analysis showed that overall life satisfaction was practically the same for participants with children and for those without children.
And although parents reported a slightly greater sense of meaning in life, the difference between them and people without children was small.
Participants who had children reported lower relationship satisfaction than participants who did not have children. Overall, compared with previous studies, the findings suggest that parenthood is either neutral or has only a very small effect on hedonic well-being and life satisfaction.
The researchers argue that, rather than producing long-term increases in happiness and well-being, children provide intense but short-lived positive emotional experiences. For example, parents feel joy and pride when a child earns a university degree.
Those moments matter, but they don’t create lasting levels of happiness.
When it comes to relationship satisfaction, parenthood appears to have two opposing effects on partners.
One effect is positive: shared genetic interests encourage cooperation and unity. The other effect is negative: financial costs, significant time demands, and the stresses of raising children create strain in relationships.
The authors say their conclusions may be useful for people who are considering having children and expect parenthood to bring steady increases in positive emotions and overall happiness.
Meanwhile, a 2016 study found that its childless participants were happier than those who had children.
According to another earlier study of roughly 60,000 Europeans, 90 percent of people believe that watching children grow up is the greatest joy in life.
Authors of a separate study found that for 97 percent of parents, children are a source of positive emotions.
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