Through the ups and downs, good times and bad, every family has the potential to be just as happy as anyone…or do they?
Of course. There’s no one size fits all method for having the happiest family in the world, but according to a study from Australia’s Edith Cowan University, parents who have four or more children were statistically shown to be the happiest of all parents.
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Over the course of five years, Dr. Bronwyn Harman, of the psychology and social science school at the university, worked and studied to try to understand which type of families are the most content. In her studies, she interviewed and analysed hundreds of parents from a variety of different family makeups to measure their resilience, social support, self-esteem, and overall satisfaction with life.
Initially, Dr. Bronwyn Harman had hypothesised that parents who had four or more children would be less happy than parents of fewer children. To her surprise, quite the opposite was found to be true. Apparently, parents find joy in expanding their family and working to cultivate a larger, more loving family.
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In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Dr. Harman said,“[The parents] usually say they always wanted a large family, it was planned that way, and it was a lifestyle they’d chosen.”
What should be noted is that families that have more children tend to be more chaotic. They also tend to have a significant discrepancy in terms of financial status, though not always.
What this surprising study suggests is that parent’s happiness relates to the effort has been put into growing a family.
While that assertion definitely holds water, the fact of the matter is that having more kids isn’t going to solve any problems. Parents who don’t jump for joy at the very prospect of having a larger family don’t need to force the issue. The study points out that larger families are happier, sure, but there’s also an implied value that those families had set their sights on having a large family to begin with.
Learn more about Dr. Bronwyn Harman by clicking here.
This story was originally shared by The Daily Signal
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