Children Apparently DO Make Parents Happier, Just Later in Life

Look on the bright side:  someone else will
probably deal with messes like this after you're 40.
From the Missourian.

In spite of the common wisdom that children bring happiness to their parents, psychologists have long known that parents' happiness scores actually drop the more children they have. Now, however, Medical News Daily reports that this trend reverses after age 40. Once parents reach that age, they become happier with up to three children, and after age 50, they become happier no matter how many children they have, all independent of sex, income, or partnership status.

This information comes from a survey by the University of Pennsylvania and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR). The survey covered around 200,000 men and women in 86 countries from 1981 to 2005.

MPIDR demographer Mikko Myrskylä theorizes that the change in happiness has to do with life stages of the parents, saying, "Seeing the age trend of happiness independent of sex, income, partnership status and even fertility rates shows that one has to explain it from the perspective of the stage of parents' life." The negative aspects of early childhood--like messes, troublemaking, and safety concerns--often overshadow the positive aspects, but as children mature, parents can rest easy and enjoy the benefits. Researchers also believe that the financial burdens of early childhood weigh on young parents, because countries with better-developed welfare systems show less difference in happiness between people with children and those without.

People's decision to have children is usually independent of what science shows, but in case it does affect your decision, this stuff is good to know anyway!

Britain Preps Study of 90,000 Children

Prime examples of British children. "Charlie Bit Me"
screenshot from cityrag.

Today parentdish reports on Britain's next phase of its national happiness program:  a study of 90,000 British children. Both children and parents will be surveyed, hopefully giving more insight into the roles that different social, economic, biological, environmental, and health factors play in the lives of children than previous studies. This phase will begin in 2012 and will cost around £33.5 million.

British Science Minister David Willetts says, "Birth cohort studies provide a unique insight into all the factors affecting people's lives and are central to our understanding of child development. They produce powerful evidence that informs government policy on a wide range of issues, including social mobility, inequality, education, and public health. This in turn has positive economic impacts through changes in the delivery of public services, earlier diagnosis of diseases, and improvements in quality of life."

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg supports the program, adding, "This government is committed to the long term - to making decisions today that will promote a better future:  a more prosperous economy, and a fairer society."

Happy Adolescence Leads to Happy Adulthood...and Divorce

So now when I look at pics like this, I know around 20%
of these excited kids will be divorced. Thanks science!
From English Subject Centre.

Apparently in keeping with this week's divorce theme, the Vancouver Sun reports that a happy adolescence increases the likelihood of a happy adulthood, but also increases the likelihood of divorce. This information comes from a study in the The Journal of Positive Psychology that analyzed data on 2,776 British citizens born in 1946. The data concerned teacher evaluations of students aged 13 to 15, rating them on their popularity, ease of making friends, energy levels, and overall happiness.

This interesting rating method revealed that around 20% of the kids who scored highly in multiple areas were divorced by age 53, compared to around 16% of the kids who scored poorly, even with no change in the likelihood of marriage. The difference of four percent appears small, but is significant enough to warrant further investigation. (For comparison, the divorce rate in the United States is somewhere around 43%, increasing to around 75% the more marriages a person has.)

The study, carried out by Felicia Huppert of the University of Cambridge and Marcus Richards of Britain's Medical Research Council, says, "The explanation for this is not immediately obvious and warrants further investigation. One possible factor might be that positive children have higher self-esteem or self-efficacy than their peers and are therefore more willing to leave a marriage if it is not meeting their needs."

HOWEVER, before you try to protect teenagers by making them sad, the study goes on to say that the benefits of a happy adolescence outweigh the downsides. Happy teenagers go on to become adults who are more satisfied with their jobs, more social, and 60% less likely to develop mental disorders. Whew!

Divorce or Separation May Be Worse for Child Happiness Than Poverty

Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage.
From An opinion on film.

Today The Daily Mail reports on something that you may already suspect:  divorce or separation of parents has a more negative effect on children's life satisfaction than poverty. This information comes from a new survey by the Understanding Society, a British government-funded organization.

Initial findings show that British children rank lower in overall life satisfaction than children in other developed countries. Parental happiness plays a big role in how happy they feel. They also experience a higher prevalence of bullying than children in the United States.

The researchers interviewed 34,500 people, including 2,000 children between 10 and 15 years old. The organization hopes to survey around 100,000 people every year to gain a deeper understanding of issues such as health, crime, finances, and work.

Professor Nick Buck, the director of Understanding Society, says, "We are collecting a much richer set of data than the national census, for instance, and I think this is going to lead to a major change in the way social research is performed, to understand how individual wellbeing and happiness is developed, and how behavior impacts on later outcomes."

Luxembourg Conducts Its Own Tiny Happiness Survey

From Wikipedia.

Yes, according to 352 Lux Mag, one of the smallest countries in the world now has happiness data. The survey was performed by statisticians CEPS/INSTEAD and focused on the effects of health and money on happiness.

The article is unclear on the details of the study, but apparently 33% of Luxembourgians living in houses without proper facilities are unhappy. Unemployment is also a source of unhappiness, with 25% of the jobless reporting a score of "miserable." The happiest people were those in families with two or more children, reporting 97% happiness, though I don't know if that refers to the parents or the children. Single parents are apparently a dour lot, with only 15% happiness.

These statistics are rather suspect, but maybe the study itself does a better job of explaining them. If you know French, you can read it here. Maybe Luxembourgians just really like kids? I don't know, but I have a hard time believing that 97% of families with two or more children are happy. Most research shows that children DECREASE happiness (though to what degree is in some dispute).

The parts about money seem better founded, though. Most researchers agree that money in an important part of happiness for the impoverished, but in the middle class and beyond, money's effect on longterm happiness decreases significantly (but maybe even that is incorrect). You can read more about positive psychology's on-again, off-again relationship with money in these fabulous blog entries.