Life satisfaction and transition to parenthood

A large of body of evidence reports an adverse effect of children on parental life satisfaction. Several alternative hypotheses have been proposed to explain this effect including after-birth changes in time schedules of both parents, in relationship dynamics and in division of labour between parents. The majority of these explanations are based on comparisons of life satisfaction before and after having children or life satisfaction of childless couples and parents. Yet, very little is known about the dynamics of parents’ life satisfaction when they are expecting a child. We explore transition to parenthood during pregnancy as an alternative explanation to decline in parental life satisfaction after childbirth. In a multi-country field experiment where mothers and their partners are approached at different stages of pregnancy as well as after childbirth, we find that life satisfaction follows a U-shaped pattern decreasing towards the middle of pregnancy and then improving at the late stage of pregnancy and after childbirth. Our results show that despite an increase in life satisfaction towards the late stage of pregnancy, satisfaction levels in both mothers and partners fail to reach levels equivalent to those observed at the early stages of pregnancy although, after childbirth, men tend to be more satisfied with their life than women