Child’s happiness depends on family relationship

Two of the most important deciding factors in a child’s happiness are a good relationship with parents, and a mother who is happy in her own romantic life, according to a new report published by Britain’s Institute for Social and Economic Research.

Researchers – who are tracking 40,000 U.K. households as part of a long-term study – surveyed 1,268 children between 10 and 15 years of age, asking them about their satisfaction with life.

The children who reported highest levels of satisfaction lived with two parents and did not fight with them regularly, ate with their family at least three times a week, had no younger siblings – and had mothers who were happy in their current romantic relationship, which proved to be one of the most important factors.

Of those children whose mothers were happily in a relationship, 73 percent reported being ‘perfectly happy’, as compared to only 55 percent of children whose mothers were not in a good relationship.

Dr. Maria Iacovou, one of the study’s authors, noted that "these findings show that family relationships and the happiness of parents are key to the happiness of young people. Contrary to the popular belief that children only want to spend time playing video games or watching TV we found that they were most happy when interacting with their parents or siblings."