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.
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...