This is hardly news to the couples’ therapists out there but kids stress marital bliss. An eight-year study of 218 couples found that 90 percent experienced a decrease in marital satisfaction once the first child was born.
“Couples who do not have children also show diminished marital quality over time,” says Scott Stanley, research professor of psychology at the University of Denver. “However, having a baby accelerates the deterioration, especially seen during periods of adjustment right after the birth of a child.”
The research appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and shows that couples who live together before marriage experience more problems after birth than those who live separately before marriage. As did those whose parents fought or divorced. However, some couples said their relationships were stronger post-birth. Longer-married couples or those with higher incomes had fewer marital problems after a baby than those with lower incomes or who had been married more recently.
On the other hand, another study in the Journal of Family Communication found that fighting couples live longer. Not happier, I guess. But longer.
Yet another study had the audacity to point out the fact that the happiness of the world at large also hinges on your decision to have or not have a kid. You know, the 10,000-megaton-carbon-footprint baby. Not to mention the 3,800 diapers.