[tehayj]

When it comes to positive psychology married people with kids feel less satisfied with life, but other factors that also contribute to happiness such as meaning and purpose are increased in this group of people and make up for that.

[adrianhoward]

When it comes to positive psychology married people with kids feel less satisfied with life

[citation needed]

[tehayj]

This is one http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/I...

The other one is cited in this book (I read it there first) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1857883292/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...

Here is a not so scientific national poll about this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2135843/Children-liv...

[adrianhoward]

Interesting - thank you. Especially the three studies in the first paper.

The discussion on moderators on the first study is interesting since it shows that it's not a universal truth - but significantly moderated by age, marital status and sex. For example:

"Finally, age significantly moderated the link between parenthood and life satisfaction. Simple effects analyses revealed that young parents (ages 17-25) were less satisfied with their lives than their childless counterparts (b = -0.39, p < .001); mid-range age parents (ages 26-62) were more satisfied than their childless peers (b = 0.42, p < .001); and older parents (ages 63 and older) did not differ from older non-parents (b = 0.16, p = .29)."

The discussion on recall bias is interesting to - nice to see that mentioned.

US only population too. Would be interested to see how that goes across cultures.