Subjective well-being of parents and nonparents in middle and old age: Well-being premiums and penalties of parenthood in Germany and Europe

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matthias Pollmann-Schult
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 440286404

This project examines the association between parental status and subjective well-being in middle and late life. Because adult children often provide care and support for aging parents, family researchers often argue that parents experience higher subjec-tive well-being than nonparents. Others researchers, however, point out that strained parent-child relations can decrease older parents’ subjective well-being. Previous re-search on this association has produced inconsistent findings and is limited in various ways. This project aims to generate new insights into well-being differences between parents and childless individuals in Germany and Europe by examining national (SOEP, DEAS) and international (SHARE, ESS) representative datasets.The project in organized into three parts. In the first part takes into account the multi-dimensional nature of subjective well-being. Here, we will scrutinize the ways in which parenthood is associated with both positive and negative facets of subjective well-being, and whether positive and negative effects offset each other with regard to the overall impact of parenthood on subjective well-being. The second part of the project will focus on heterogeneity in the association between parental status and subjective well-being. Here, we will examine whether this associa-tion is mediated and moderated by characteristics of the parent-child relationship and major events in the lives of adult children and older parents. The third part of the project will analyse the extent to which the gap in subjective well-being between parents and nonparents varies by contextual factors. Here, we will ad-dress the question of whether differing levels of institutional support for elders and social norms towards parenthood moderate the association between parental status and subjective well-being.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants