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8 Be a Parent
Despite the cell phone bills,
the late nights and endless saving
for college, parents aren’t an
unhappy bunch. This is what
UCR Department of Psychology
doctoral candidate and member
of the Positive Psychology Lab
Katie Nelson and her colleagues
have found in their
research.
“Most parents
I talked to said
that becoming a
parent was one
of the best things
they had done with
their lives,” Nelson
says. “I wanted to
“Parents
reported
greater
positive
emotions ...
when they
were
spending time
with their
children.”
understand why [previous]
scientific studies didn’t match
personal accounts of parenthood.”
In investigating the emotional
experiences of both nonparents
and parents, Nelson and her
colleagues found that parents
reported higher global happiness,
life satisfaction and
thoughts about
meaning in life.
“Parents reported
greater positive
emotions and meaning
in life when they were
spending time with
their children than
during their other
daily activities,”
Nelson said.
Nelson has also
looked at what kinds
of parents are happier:
“We found that
parents’ happiness
depended on a few
key factors: marital
status, age and gender.”
For parents, the level of
happiness depends on many
additional factors, which may
change over the life course. For
example, parenting very young
children or adolescents appears
to be a trying time, but parenting
adult children may have well-being
benefits.
UCR Spring 2013 | 15