New research suggests that parents, especially dads, are happier
than adults without children. / Jim Avelis, AP Are parents
happier than people without kids? The conventional wisdom would
say kids bring parental joy, but in past research, childless
people have reported greater well-being. Now, new research in
the journal Psychological Science find that overall, "parents
(and especially fathers) report relatively higher levels of
happiness, positive emotion, and meaning in life than do non-
parents." Of the three studies, the largest sample comes from
6,906 individuals collected between 1982 and 1999. It found that
fathers and parents between ages 26 and 62 were happier, but not
mothers, young parents and single parents. There were no
differences in happiness between moms and women without
children, but young parents and single parents were
significantly less happy than childless peers, says co-author
Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of
California-Riverside. "The effect is small, but