Having a child is a decision that can, and will, affect almost every aspect of a person’s life. On one hand, children can bring happiness, fulfillment, and a true sense of family to a couple. On the other, babies are expensive, time consuming, and can challenge the patience of even the most laid-back parents. In the United States, it turns out that the more trying aspects of parenting are getting the better of people, as new research shows parents are not as happy as those without children.
Scientists from Baylor University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Wake Forest University teamed up to examine data on parental happiness from the U.S. and 22 other industrialized countries. They gathered statistics from the International Social Surveys and the European Social Surveys, and saw that not only are U.S. parents generally not as happy as non-parents, but the country also has the largest happiness gap between the two groups. Set to be published in the September issue of the American Journal of Sociology, the report on the data looks at why such a gap might exist.
[For more of this story, written by Ali Venosa, go to http://www.medicaldaily.com/pa...ve-child-care-390769]
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