Women are happier without children or a spouse | Hacker News Reader

Women are happier without children or a spouse

theguardian.com

18 pointstemp999907 comments

“Married people are happier than other population subgroups, but only when their spouse is in the room when they’re asked how happy they are. When the spouse is not present: fucking miserable,” he said.

“We do have some good longitudinal data following the same people over time, but I am going to do a massive disservice to that science and just say: if you’re a man, you should probably get married; if you’re a woman, don’t bother.”

Obviously this guy is speaking off the cuff. And the article is light on detail and doesn't reference any studies.

Study from 2017 that makes the opposite claim:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-017-9941-3

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, we control individual pre-marital well-being levels and find that the married are still more satisfied, suggesting a causal effect at all stages of the marriage, from pre-nuptual bliss to marriages of long-duration.

A brief APA article describes possible marital bliss confounders:

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/10/marriage

In short: marriage qua marriage won't make anyone happy; children reduce reduce happiness; economic insecurity causes unhappiness.

I’ve seen another report that said children reduce happiness if you are poor and increase it if you are rich. I guess the rich can afford to outsource some of the parental responsibilities.

I’d expect that it’s less about outsourcing responsibility and more to do with the financial pressure caused by having children. As money finances is the factor used to separate the two groups.

Being childless and alone at 50-70 sounds like heaven. Old people hate being visited by their grandchildren.

Sounds like you are joking. Not all do. And a lot of seniors are getting laid a lot.

Some without knowing it unfortunately. My eldest child worked at a nursing home and there were situations where lucid consent was not likely in one or sometimes even both of the people involved.

On the other hand, being childless < 50 sounds amazing.

Source: not childless, am < 50

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