CNA Staff, Mar 27, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
A recent analysis of U.S. survey data found that children tend to bring “high levels of happiness” to activities such as mealtimes, socializing, and household activities.
Ken Burchfiel, a research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, said in an analysis published on Thursday that American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data shows “everyday activities are actually more enjoyable when children are present.”
Burchfiel said a 2013 Time magazine article that glamorized the “child-free life” is counteracted by ATUS data showing that levels of “happiness and meaningfulness” tend to be highest when children are involved in an activity.
Overall, 44% of respondents to the survey rated their happiness levels at their highest when their children were involved in an activity, compared with 37% when a spouse was involved and just 19% when respondents were alone.
Meanwhile, 56% of respondents said their “meaningfulness” levels were at their peak when with their children, compared with 43% with their spouses and 29% while alone.
Broken down by category, higher happiness and meaningfulness levels with children were observed in activities ranging from mealtimes to socializing to traveling.
Respondents only said they were happier with others when engaged in “consumer purchases,” though they still ranked their “meaningfulness” higher when shopping with children.
The analysis “calls into question the wisdom of the ‘child-free’ movement,” Burchfiel wrote, arguing that it’s “possible that those who forgo children in order to focus on their careers or social lives are actually limiting their happiness as a result.”
He stressed that the results “do not prove that the presence of children directly increases well-being,” arguing that other factors such as marriage and religion may play large roles.
Moreover, the data was collected during the COVID-19 crisis, he noted, which was “a time when Americans were more isolated than usual” and their social options were limited.
Yet the results “should prove encouraging to those who are considering having kids but are afraid to give up their current lifestyle,” he said.
The analysis comes amid record-low fertility rates in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world, with huge numbers of young people opting to have few or no children and demographers predicting population declines in the coming decades.
Researchers in Canada last year underscored that much of the decline in fertility can be traced to declining marriage rates, with many people marrying later and later and thus delaying childbirth for years.
Notably, even majority-Catholic and historically Catholic countries have not been free from the demographic collapse.
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