Shocking Study Reveals Parenthood Brings Unhappiness For Most Couples

If a new study on German couples is any indication, having children may not guarantee the happiness couples set out find in matrimony.

The study found that couples reported experiencing more unhappiness than divorce, death of a partner and even unemployment in the first year after becoming parents, according to The Washington Post. The happiness that most couples experience in the year prior to birth could be marred by complications of birth process and the responsibilities of parenthood that seem to take a toll on well-being.

"Parent's experience with and after the first birth help predict how large the family will be eventually. Politicians concerned about low birthrates should pay attention to the well-being of new parents around and after the birth of their first child," said Mikko Myrskylä, demographer and director at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.

Along with Rachel Margolis from the Sociology Department at the University of Western Ontario, Myrskylä found that 70 percent of the couples surveyed experienced an average drop of 1.4 units in happiness during the first year of parenthood. In comparison, the death of a partner and unemployment cause one unit dip in happiness on the same scale.

The study's findings are important as they show that experiences with the first child influence a couple's decision to try again. The study's authors write that though most German couples say they want to have two children, the country's average birth rate is 1.5 children per women.