Having kids will make you happier than being childless, says a modern study, but not until later in life when they have flown the nest.
A group of researchers at Heidelberg University in Germany discovered that parents seem to be more satisfied than non-parents in old age, but this only exists if their children have migrated.
Past research has proposed that parenthood, social networks, and marital status influence the well-being and mental health of aged people and this modern study look at the results of family status.
Investigators questioned 55,000 people age 50 and over from 16 European countries about their mental health, and results imply “the positive phases of parenthood dominate when getting older.”
One of the most important reasons is that kids become a kind of emotional and social support, and the investigators suggest that social support networks are connected with more comfort and less isolation and can serve as a barrier against stressful situations.
“The outcomes propose that the conclusion of a negative link between kids and well-being and mental health may not infer to older people whose kids have frequently left home already,” the study says.
Kids Make You Happier
As stress linked with balancing the competing needs of childcare, work, and personal life decrease, once people get more aged and their kids leave, the value of kids as caregivers and social contacts might prevail. However, kids who still live at home are proved to harm well-being.
Christoph Becker, the head of the investigation group, said that having a social network leads to more happiness and comfort, but that doesn’t have to come from children.
Aged people without kids could enjoy the same advantages from other close social connections with which they can share problems and difficulties, he added.
“Research has proposed that there might be a U-shaped link between age and happiness: people become less happy in middle age, but happier in older age,” said Becker.
