Married, With Children — and Happiness

Married people who are raising children report more satisfaction with life than their child-free counterparts. And the more kids they have, the happier the couples seem to be. That’s from a study published in October by Dr. Luis Angeles of the University of Glasgow. The study also found that the childrearing-happiness effect does not hold for people who are separated, cohabiting or single. Explains Angeles: “One is tempted to advance that children make people better off under the ‘right conditions’ — a time in life when people feel that they are ready, or at least willing, to enter parenthood. This time can come at very different moments for different individuals, but a likely signal of its approach may well be the act of marriage.”