Does having children make couples happier? Consider What the Study Says

People with children at home are just as satisfied with their lives as those who do not have children at home suggest a new study.

“Parents tend to value their lives more than children, but they are different in many ways: they are richer, more educated, healthier,” said coauthor of the study, Angus Deaton, economist at Princeton University. “Once you've checked these things, there's basically no difference in the value of life. ”

The findings, published days ago in the magazine “Processings of the National Academy of Sciences”, suggest that people who choose one way of life compared to another will be very satisfied with their decision.

“People who have children generally want children,” said Deaton for “LiveScience”. “People who don't want children are people who, in general, don't want to have children. And why would you expect one group to be happier than the other?

Parental studies have come up with conflicting results. Some studies show that for young parents, happiness falls with the birth of every extra child but that people with large families have more joy or happiness in middle age.

Other studies have found that parents are happier than non - parents. Other research, on the other hand, suggests that children hinder marital contentment.

Deaton and colleague Arthur Stone, psychiatrist at Stone Brook University in New York, analyzed the Gallup poll data of 1.8 million Americans as well as 170,000 people in 161 countries worldwide.

Survey participants showed whether they had children at home and answered some other questions, including a question they valued their lives using the scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best possible life and 0 worst.

They also answered questions about whether they felt happy, smiling, angry, concerned or other emotions “too much” or “aspaque”, the day before.

Generally, people with children at home tended to value their lives higher than those without children at home. But after controlling other variables associated with the pleasure of living, both income, health, and the level of religion melted away.

The study cannot fully answer the question of whether parents are happier than non - parents. Depending on the choice comes happiness, and different people choose different ways in life, said Andree Oswald, an economist at the University of Saharick in England.

For those who don't want children “it may be that they will be as happy as they are without children, especially if they have things in their lives that fulfill their lives as much as they are”, says Carol Graham, economist at the Brookings Institute.

But there is a clear benefit (or potential) from children - grandchildren. There are many facts that grandchildren and grandchildren make you happier”, said Oswald, who has just become grandfather. “And you can see why intuitably: Grandparents have many benefits without having to wake up in the middle of the night.