UK Wedding News
29/10/2014
The research, conducted by the London School of Economics (LSE) and Western University, Canada, having one child does increase a parents' happiness, while a second also increases their happiness slightly. However, having three children is said to make no difference.
According to the research, which has been published in the journal Demography, a parent's happiness increases in the year before and after the birth of a first child. It then decreases and returns to their "pre-child" level of happiness.
Where second births are concerned, the pattern is familiar, but the increase in happiness levels before and around the birth is only said to be half of that compared to first births.
Women are more likely to gain more in happiness prior to – and right after – the birth of a child, compared to men. However, the study found they are also more likely to have a steeper fall in their happiness levels between the year of the birth of their child and the following year. A reason for this, the study said, could be down to an initial larger gain of happiness. Looking at the levels in the long-term though, the researchers found there are no differences between the happiness levels of men and women before and after children.
Elsewhere, parents who have children when they are older, or who are more educated, are more likely to have a positive response to the birth of their first child. For example, parents between the ages of 35 and 49 are said to have the strongest happiness gains around the time of birth. They also stay at a higher level of happiness after becoming parents. In contrast, those who become parents between the ages of 23 and 34 have increasing happiness before a first birth, but between one to two years after the birth, their happiness falls to a baseline level, or lower.
Mikko Myrskylä, professor of demography at LSE and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, explained: "Our results show a temporary and transitory gain in parents' happiness around the birth of first and second children. The fact that parental happiness increases before these children are born suggests that we are capturing broader issues relating to childbearing such as couples forming partnerships and making plans for the future.
"The arrival of a third child is not associated with an increase in the parents' happiness, but this is not to suggest they are any less loved than their older siblings. Instead, this may reflect that the experience of parenthood is less novel and exciting by the time the third child is born or that a larger family puts extra pressure on the parents' resources.
"Also, the likelihood of a pregnancy being unplanned may increase with the number of children a woman already has – and this brings its own stresses."
Rachel Margolis, assistant professor from Western University's Faculty of Social Science, added: "The fact that among older and better-educated parents, well-being increases with childbearing, but the young and less-educated parents have flat or even downward happiness trajectories, may explain why postponing fertility has become so common."
(JP/CD)
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Having Three Children 'Doesn't Increase Happiness'
A new study has revealed that having three children does not increase the level of their parents' happiness.The research, conducted by the London School of Economics (LSE) and Western University, Canada, having one child does increase a parents' happiness, while a second also increases their happiness slightly. However, having three children is said to make no difference.
According to the research, which has been published in the journal Demography, a parent's happiness increases in the year before and after the birth of a first child. It then decreases and returns to their "pre-child" level of happiness.
Where second births are concerned, the pattern is familiar, but the increase in happiness levels before and around the birth is only said to be half of that compared to first births.
Women are more likely to gain more in happiness prior to – and right after – the birth of a child, compared to men. However, the study found they are also more likely to have a steeper fall in their happiness levels between the year of the birth of their child and the following year. A reason for this, the study said, could be down to an initial larger gain of happiness. Looking at the levels in the long-term though, the researchers found there are no differences between the happiness levels of men and women before and after children.
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Elsewhere, parents who have children when they are older, or who are more educated, are more likely to have a positive response to the birth of their first child. For example, parents between the ages of 35 and 49 are said to have the strongest happiness gains around the time of birth. They also stay at a higher level of happiness after becoming parents. In contrast, those who become parents between the ages of 23 and 34 have increasing happiness before a first birth, but between one to two years after the birth, their happiness falls to a baseline level, or lower.
Mikko Myrskylä, professor of demography at LSE and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, explained: "Our results show a temporary and transitory gain in parents' happiness around the birth of first and second children. The fact that parental happiness increases before these children are born suggests that we are capturing broader issues relating to childbearing such as couples forming partnerships and making plans for the future.
"The arrival of a third child is not associated with an increase in the parents' happiness, but this is not to suggest they are any less loved than their older siblings. Instead, this may reflect that the experience of parenthood is less novel and exciting by the time the third child is born or that a larger family puts extra pressure on the parents' resources.
"Also, the likelihood of a pregnancy being unplanned may increase with the number of children a woman already has – and this brings its own stresses."
Rachel Margolis, assistant professor from Western University's Faculty of Social Science, added: "The fact that among older and better-educated parents, well-being increases with childbearing, but the young and less-educated parents have flat or even downward happiness trajectories, may explain why postponing fertility has become so common."
(JP/CD)
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