Lumifer comments on Some thoughts on having children - Less Wrong

5 Post author: pianoforte611 08 January 2014 05:26PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 08 January 2014 09:03:30PM 8 points [-]

A study suggests that happiness is negatively affected by having children

It doesn't seem to. Following your link, the study suggests that working women in Texas weren't very happy when taking care of their kids.

That's an answer to a drastically different question.

Comment author: Dan_Weinand 09 January 2014 04:25:45AM 0 points [-]

Sorry, a more applicable study is behind a pay-wall. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/351391?uid=3739640&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103313626383 Summary: data from six surveys suggest negative correlation between having children and several measures of life satisfaction. Standard caveats that correlation doesn't imply causation, etc.

Comment author: Lumifer 09 January 2014 04:38:57AM *  0 points [-]

Hm. Pity about the paywall. Throwing in here a PDF on the likelihood of depression among people with children and childless people. I read it as no significant difference (I understand that the authors don't feel that way).