Study: Parents of daughters, especially two girls, report highest happiness

Does having a daughter or a son make a difference to how happy parents feel? A new study from China has found an interesting pattern. Parents who had only daughters reported higher levels of happiness than those who had only sons. The association was particularly strong among parents with ‘two daughters,’ according to the study. But the researchers are careful about what the finding means. The study does not show that having daughters causes parents to be happier. Researchers Zhong Fei and Wenqin Jin examined six waves of data from the Chinese General Social Survey collected between 2012 and 2021. The study looked at the relationship between parenthood, the number of children, the gender composition of children and reported happiness.Parents with daughters reported higher happinessThe study found that parents with only daughters tended to report higher happiness than parents with only sons.