Does becoming a parent change the meaning of happiness and life satisfaction? Evidence from the European Social Survey

André Pirralha, Henrik Dobewall

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionScientificpeer-review

    Abstract

    This study aims to determine whether subjective well-being has a different psychological meaning for parents and childless respondents. We analyzed comparative data of the third round of the European Social Survey (ESS; N=10,913). After case-control matching, in line with previous work, we found that in some Eastern European countries and Ireland non-mothers report higher SWB levels than mothers. Mothers from the other countries and fathers reported higher SWB levels than non-mothers from these countries and non-fathers. However, resorting to structural equation modelling, we tested for measurement invariance across groups and no indication of differences between parents and childless respondents was found. Having established full scalar measurement invariance, it was determined that measurement is not responsible for the low SWB levels of mothers in some European countries.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings of the 48th scientific meeting of the Italian Statistical Society : SIS2016 Proceedings
    Place of PublicationFisciano (SA), Italy
    PublisherUniversita degli Studi di Salerno
    Publication dateJun 2016
    ISBN (Electronic)978-88-6197-061-8
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2016
    MoE publication typeA4 Article in conference proceedings
    EventMeetings of italian statistical society - Fisciano (SA), Italy, Italy
    Duration: 8 Jun 201610 Jun 2016
    Conference number: 48 (SIS2016)

    Fields of Science

    • 515 Psychology

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