The increasing happiness of US parents

Authors

Chris M. Herbst
John Ifcher, Santa Clara UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-2016

Publisher

Springer

Abstract

Previous research suggests that parents may be less happy than non-parents. We critically assess the literature and examine parents’ and non-parents’ happiness-trends using the General Social Survey (N = 42,298) and DDB Lifestyle Survey (N = 75,237). We find that parents are becoming happier over time relative to non-parents, that non-parents’ happiness is declining absolutely, and that estimates of the parental happiness gap are sensitive to the time-period analyzed. These results are consistent across two datasets, most subgroups, and various specifications. Finally, we present evidence that suggests children appear to protect parents against social and economic forces that may be reducing happiness among non-parents.

Comments

The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-015-9302-0

Recommended Citation

Herbst, C. M., & Ifcher, J. (2016). The increasing happiness of US parents. Review of Economics of the Household, 14(3), 529–551.