Having children DOESN’T make you happy: Becoming a parent provides no boost to wellbeing, study claims – but it does ruin your relationship

They’re usually touted as a ‘bundle of joy’ – but having children doesn’t make you happier, a new study suggests.

Researchers have found that becoming a parent does not lead to a significant increase in positive emotions.

They found virtually no difference in levels of happiness or life satisfaction between parents and non-parents.

The study, published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, contradicts the widely held belief that children are sources of positive emotions.

And it reveals that becoming parents actually triggers a decline in relationship satisfaction.

“These results do not support our hypothesis that parenthood is positively associated with hedonic well-being (levels of positive emotions) and life satisfaction,” wrote the researchers from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus.

“Instead, our results suggest neutrality, that parenthood has a limited impact on these dimensions.”

“In almost all cases, the observable differences between parents and non-parents were minimal.”

Researchers found that becoming a parent does not lead to a significant increase in positive emotions (file image)

For the study, the team analyzed data from more than 5,000 people across 10 countries, including the UK.

Of the sample, 38.5 percent reported having children.

Participants were asked to complete questionnaires assessing two different types of well-being: hedonic, which refers to everyday feelings such as happiness, sadness and loneliness, and eudemonic, which refers to having a purpose in life.

The analysis found that parents were no happier than non-parents and that overall levels of life satisfaction were about the same.

The team said a positive link between parenthood and happiness – as documented in previous studies – might actually be due to relationship status.

People in relationships tend to be in a better emotional place than those who are single, and they are also more likely to have children.

In the new study, researchers also found that women with children reported a slightly higher sense of having a “purpose” in life, but the difference was small.

“Additionally, participants with children reported lower relationship satisfaction than those without children,” they said.

A previous study, published in 2016, also seemed to show that non-parents were happier than people with children.

“In general, combining our findings with previous research suggests that parenthood is either neutral or has a very small impact on hedonic well-being and life satisfaction,” the team concluded.

They suggest that rather than enhancing long-term happiness and well-being, children instead provide intense but brief positive emotional experiences.

For example, the feelings of joy and pride when a child graduates from college.

While these moments are important, they might be too brief to result in a lasting increase in happiness levels, the researchers said.

Regarding relationship satisfaction, they suggest that parenthood exerts two opposing influences on a couple.

“One positive, arising from mutual genetic interests promoting cooperation and unity, and the other negative, arising from the associated financial costs, significant time demands, and stressors involved in raising children, all of which place strains on relationships,” they wrote.

They argued that their findings may be useful for those who want children – especially if they expect a sustained increase in happiness and positive emotions from becoming parents.

“These expectations are unlikely to materialize,” they added. “Our results, combined with previous literature, suggest that there are many benefits to being a parent, but that a permanent increase in baseline hedonic well-being is unlikely to be one of them.”

A previous study of almost 60,000 people in Europe found that around 90 percent agreed that “seeing children grow up is the greatest joy in life.”

Furthermore, another article reveals that 97 percent of parents strongly support the idea that children are sources of positive emotional experiences.

However, a study published in 2016 found that, overall, the positive glow of parenthood only lasts about 12 months.

After this period, there is no improvement in “subjective well-being”.