Research on happiness of large vs. small families

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Does anyone know of any credible objective research that may have been performed on the contentment/happiness of large vs. small families?

Reading on Margarette Sanger and her attrribution of disfuntion amongst large families got me to thinking about just how much (if any) truth is in her cause.

Thanks much,
–Mike
 
I only have personal experiance for you, but I am from a family of 8 and have 7 of my own…Growing up all the kids with 0-2 siblings wanted to be at our house, it was not so fun at theirs. They had the expensive toys, we had the relationships. Today, I have all the kids in my front yard or basement, and I like it that way. I have friends who were from small families and they see more joy and bonding in ours.
We are really good at
helping out,
anticipating needs,
teaching each other,
conflict resolution,
listening,
uniting for a common goal,
life skills,
protecting our families.
I have known alot of larger families and I prefer to be around those people raised in the bigger families.
There may be more resources in a small family, but there is A LOT of love in the big ones!
 
mommybug,
i like your post a lot.
They had the expensive toys, we had the relationships.
Click to expand...
small families have loving relationships, too, but at our house, there are just so darned ***many ***relationships. if one sibling is being cranky, there’s another kinder heart nearby!

miijoy, Margaret Sanger was, at best, viciously racist. at worst, this:

**about imigrants and blacks she said: "…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’

her hopes for artificial birth control were : “to create a race of thoroughbreds,”

and about those large families she was so certain were dysfunctional, here’s her soloution: “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” **

no good fruit can come from such a rotted tree.
 
I did some searching around, but most of the studies I was able to find were pretty old. Here are some things to get you started.

This paper indicates that mothers with large families become happier if they undertake full-time employment (see the discussion on page 615):
  • Mothers’ Work Hours and Marital Quality: Variations by Family Structure and Family Size
  • Stacy J. Rogers
  • Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Aug., 1996), pp. 606-617
  • Published by: National Council on Family Relations
This paper indicates that having a larger family size consistently leads to lower levels of happiness on average (see pages 130-131):
  • Measures of Economic Well-Being as Predictors of Psychological Well-Being
  • Mullis, Randolph.
  • Social Indicators Research. Dordrecht: Mar 1992. Vol. 26, Iss. 2; pg. 119
The other studies I found were older.

This paper included a short survey on studies of that sort (see page 760), but it was written in 1977, and most of the studies that it cites are even older. Basically, it confirms what was stated in the more modern papers - that having more children led to a lower level of marital satisfaction on average:
  • Familism and Marital Satisfaction among Mexican Americans: The Effects of Family Size, Wife’s Labor …
  • Frank D. Bean, Russell L. Curtis, Jr. and John P. Marcum
  • Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Nov., 1977), pp. 759-767
  • Published by: National Council on Family Relations
The above paper did mention one study that indicated that higher degrees of child density - that is, the number of children you have, divided by your years of marriage - led to a greater degree of role satisfaction (i.e. how couples feel about performing certain roles within the family) (see pg 437-438):
  • Marital and Family Role Satisfaction
  • Bruce A. Chadwick, Stan L. Albrecht and Phillip R. Kunz
  • Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Aug., 1976), pp. 431-440
  • Published by: National Council on Family Relations
And the above paper made reference an article by Judith Laws, 1971 (Journal of Marriage and the Family, August) that they recommended as a good survey on the family size and happiness literature at the time. Though they emphasized that most of what she describes indicates a negative relationship between family size and marital happiness.

I didn’t bother to look into the article by Laws.

So basically, most of the scholarly articles I was able to find indicated that having more children led to less happiness in marriage. Of course, as I pointed out, most of those studies were older. I was not able to find any recent studies that touched on this topic. I do not know if it is still an active area of research. Sorry.
 
mommybug47 said:
I only have personal experiance for you, but I am from a family of 8 and have 7 of my own…Growing up all the kids with 0-2 siblings wanted to be at our house, it was not so fun at theirs. They had the expensive toys, we had the relationships. Today, I have all the kids in my front yard or basement, and I like it that way. I have friends who were from small families and they see more joy and bonding in ours.
We are really good at
helping out,
anticipating needs,
teaching each other,
conflict resolution,
listening,
uniting for a common goal,
life skills,
protecting our families.
I have known alot of larger families and I prefer to be around those people raised in the bigger families.
There may be more resources in a small family, but there is A LOT of love in the big ones!
Click to expand...
Not me, sister! 4 older sisters, One bathroom between five girls. I had to be up VERY early just to get a shower. One of the sibs used to sleep with me in my bed often, simply because she couldn’t be bothered to make up her own. There was constant rummaging through each others’ drawers, taking of clothes and other things, and try making a mistake and it being either forgiven or forgotten!

Made very few of my own choices - everything from TV shows to what to eat to where to go was decided by majority vote. Never had real peace or privacy or a real identity of my own.

I live on my own now and absolutely love it. I do make the effort to keep in touch with the sibs, and do love them to bits. But gatherings of the whole clan remind me of UN security council meetings - just as chaotic, fraught and migraine-inducing.
 
When I was a kid, my favorite places to go play always had the most siblings :). Even 3 kids - my family had two - was better :). The best was a family with 4. None of my friends had more :(. And I grew up in the Catholic Northeast!!
 
monicatholic said:
mommybug,
i like your post a lot.

small families have loving relationships, too, but at our house, there are just so darned ***many ***relationships. if one sibling is being cranky, there’s another kinder heart nearby!

miijoy, Margaret Sanger was, at best, viciously racist. at worst, this:

**about imigrants and blacks she said: "…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’ **

her hopes for artificial birth control were : “to create a race of thoroughbreds,”

and about those large families she was so certain were dysfunctional, here’s her soloution: “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”

no good fruit can come from such a rotted tree.
Click to expand...
Monica,

Great Post!

You nailed it! How could anyone, much less our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, give a speech honoring Planned Parenthood (MURDERHOOD) Founder Margaret Sanger and say that she is in “AWE” of her???

To add insult to injury, the speech was the same day Hillary visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and asked, when looking at the tilma with the miraculous image of Our Lady, “Who painted it?”

I guess we get what we deserve!!

**Until we take a stand for the 50 Million innocent unborn babies murdered for $$$$$ through the US Holocaust of abortion, we will continue to get leaders who insult Our Holy Mother Mary and who are in “awe” of those who murder babies!!!
**

So much for our moral leadership!

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

Mark
 
I haven’t read any studies on larger families vs. smaller ones, but I come from a family of seven children and I know that I always was very proud of coming from such a large. Even until now, we don’t always get along but we are close. I’ve noticed that people that come from larger families seem on the whole kinder and more considerate. (No offense to smaller families).
 
I don’t think it’s the family SIZE that matters, but MUCH more the parenting. A large family with bad parenting practices will be unhappier than a small family with good parenting practices. That’s what I’ve seen in my own life, and from stories related from people on this board.
I know that’s not any real research, which might not help the OP much, but I thought I would give my :twocents:.

As for what makes good parenting practices, well, wouldn’t we all like to know that! 😛 But I think in general, happy families are truly God-centric, and each member has respect for all the other members as people, and as whatever role they have, be it father, mother, or child.
 
I would be skeptical about any research that tried to definitively say one was happier than the other. Correlations have their place to help spur on ideas. I think though what causes one to be happy is really at the heart of that matter. Then one needs to try to figure out how to incorporate that into one state.
 
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