Do marrying later and parenting later affect happiness? Analysis of data from the Chinese General Social Survey

• Chunlin Wan

  School of Economics, Sichuan University

• Xinrui Gao

  School of Economics, Sichuan University

• Min Zhang

  School of Economics, Sichuan University

• Yuyan Liu

  HEOA Group, West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University

We investigated whether marrying and parenting later influences people’s happiness. Data were sourced from the Chinese General Social Survey 2017, with an average age when marrying of 25.34 years and an average age when becoming a parent of 27.03 years. Analysis showed that, compared to parenting later, those parenting at a younger age were happier. However, the effect of age at marriage on later happiness was not significant. Further, the effect of parenting age on happiness was greater among men than it was for women, and greater for rural residents compared with urban residents. Data analysis revealed three main channels through which parenting age affected happiness: First, parenting later increased labor income, but testing revealed that an increase in income led to a decrease in leisure time, and this lowered happiness; second, later parenting reduced the number of children born to the couple, and happiness was also reduced as the number of children in the family reduced; and third, later parenting reduced the likelihood of having grandchildren at the same time as other people of the same age, and a reduction in happiness was observed for those without grandchildren.

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