The proof is in the puddin
Over the past few decades, social scientists have produced a sizable body of evidence suggesting that parents are less happy, experience more depression and anxiety, and have less fulfilling marriages than non-parents. In this paper, we critically assess previous research on and provide an empirical reexamination of the relationship between parental status and psychological well-being using self-reported measures of happiness (General Social Survey) and life satisfaction (DDB Needham Life Style Survey) over the period 1972 to 2008. Our empirical analysis yields a number of important results. First, the unconditional happiness gap between parents and non-parents is smaller than other well-known happiness gaps. Second, estimates of the parental happiness gap are highly sensitive to the inclusion of standard demographic covariates, and in many specifications parents are happier than comparable non-parents. Third, parents are becoming happier over time relative to non-parents.
image { Shaun Gladwell, Apologies 1 - 6, 2009 }
