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Journal of Happiness Studies

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12-01-2018 | Research Paper

Does Work Make Mothers Happy?

Author: Dana Hamplová

Published in: Journal of Happiness Studies | Issue 2/2019

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Abstract

The paper explores the link between employment and subjective well-being among mothers with children under 3 years of age. It uses a pooled sample from the ESS 2004–2014 data from 30 European countries. Analyzing multiple measures of subjective well-being, the paper shows that homemakers are generally happier than full-time workers. No significant differences between homemakers and part-time workers were found. Contrary to our expectations, homemaking was positively associated with happiness particularly among mothers who left higher quality employment for childcare. Though some variation across countries exists, it is not linked to the provision of formal childcare, duration of parental leave, or tax system.

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The data from 2004 and 2006 use different measures of income deciles that are not directly comparable with later waves. Thus, imputed values based on the original variable were used (for more see http://www.talkstats.com/archive/index.php/t-44664.html).

For more see https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/docs/methodology/ESS_weighting_data_1.pdf.

A good instrument must be significantly linked to the explanatory variable but cannot be associated with the dependent variable. Unfortunately, the subjective well-being was generally associated with most other variables in the dataset. Finally, we used 1 individual level instrument (universality as defined in the Schwartz’s value scale] and two country-level characteristics (additional measures of childcare availability and parental leave benefits) that were not correlated with subjective well-being. Nevertheless, F-test shows that these instruments are relatively weak.

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Title: Does Work Make Mothers Happy?
Author: Dana Hamplová
Publication date: 12-01-2018
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Journal of Happiness Studies / Issue 2/2019
Print ISSN: 1389-4978
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7780
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9958-2

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