The pains and pleasures of parenting: when, why, and how is parenthood associated with more or less well-being?

By S. K. Nelson, Kostadin Kushlev, Sonja Lyubomirsky. Psychological bulletin, 2014

621 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The relationship between parenthood and well-being has become a hot topic among scholars, media, and general public alike. The research, however, has been mixed-some studies indicate that parents are happier than nonparents, whereas others suggest the reverse. We suggest that the question of whether parents are more or less happy than their childless peers is not the most meaningful one. To reconcile the conflicting literature and expand understanding of the emotional experience of parenthood, we present a model of parents' well-being that describes why and how parents experience more or less happiness than nonparents (i.e., mediators of the link between parenthood and well-being). We then apply this model to explain when parents are more likely to experience more or less happiness (i.e., moderators of parents' well-being, such as parent age or child temperament). Supporting our model, we review 3 primary methodological approaches: studies comparing parents and nonparents, studies examining changes in well-being across the transition to parenthood, and studies comparing parents' experiences while with their children to their other daily activities. Our review suggests that the relationship between parenthood and well-being is highly complex. We propose that parents are unhappy to the extent that they encounter relatively greater negative emotions, magnified financial problems, more sleep disturbance, and troubled marriages. By contrast, when parents experience greater meaning in life, satisfaction of their basic needs, greater positive emotions, and enhanced social roles, they are met with happiness and joy.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/46a2e14650725f79284c373589e75f207939110e

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Clinical Psychology

1. Kostadin Kushlev
2. Elizabeth W. Dunn
3. S. K. Nelson
4. Melissa A. Milkie
5. Kei Nomaguchi

In Social Psychology

1. C. Moss‐Racusin
2. Kostadin Kushlev
3. Elizabeth W. Dunn
4. S. K. Nelson
5. Melissa A. Milkie
6. Kei Nomaguchi

Citations in the corpus

• Smartphones distract parents from cultivating feelings of connection when spending time with their children (2019, background): “Because a sense of meaning is among the most commonly documented well-being benefits of parenting (for a review, see Nelson et al., 2014), we also included an exploratory measure of how much meaning and purpose in life parents felt during the event: “To what extent have you experienced a sense of…”
• Gender Differences in Work-Family Guilt in Parents of Young Children (2017, background): “The transition to parenthood has been described as a transformative experience—one that has garnered significant interest from social scientists for nearly 50 years (Nelson et al. 2014; Rossi 1968).”
• Parenthood and Well-Being: A Decade in Review. (2020, background): “Parenthood brings both demands and rewards to adult lives (Nelson et al., 2014; Nomaguchi, 2012a; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2017).”