The New Happiness Study

[erpowers]

For those who do not know there is a new happiness study that is claiming that men are now happier than women. I think this study is bogus and the way the media is reporting the study is just as bogus. It seems that the study is saying that women are less happy than men in part because 19% of women as opposed to 7% of men said they did not look forward to going to visit their parents. So far the media has been report on this study by making the claim that women are less happy than men because women now have to work. The media is pushing the idea that if only things were the way they were during the leave it to beaver days women would be happy. Both NBC and CBS alluded to show from the 50's when women did not work.

I think this study is bogus mainly because even when you look a the question of whether women are happy about visiting their parents, the vast majority of women (81%) are happy about going to visit their parents. In addition, what does being happy about visiting your parent have to do with being happy overall? I am sure that there are many women who may not greatly enjoy visiting their parents who are extremely happy.

I am not sure the study directly asked women if they were happy. I will try to look up the study in order to read more about it. So far the media has been stuck on the question mentioned above.

[shifting_sands]

1. Happy

I am 65 (almost) years old and there have been "who is happiest men or women" studies since at least my 20's, so that's 40 years of "happy studies" They have all been the same 1. Married Men are the happiest, 2. Single Women are next happiest, 3. Single Men are not happy and 4. Married women are the least happiest group.

Having been a married woman for about 20 of those years and unmarried for about 20 I can tell you that I was certainly not happy married (except for the kids) and have been so much happier (though poorer) since I've been single. They run those studies out, the same ones over and over. My mother told me these studies were running in the 30s, with the same results.

[renate]

2. without having read the story you're referring to...

... you said the media are talking about it in terms of women's being unhappy about working.

Perhaps it's not the having-to-work thing as the kind of jobs or pay they can get, especially if they dropped out of the job market for a while to raise their family and are stuck with entry-level jobs in their 40s or 50s.

Just a thought. As I said, I haven't seen or heard about the study.

[Warpy]

3. The media interpretation is certainly bogus

but the original article was spot on. Women don't like to visit mom & dad because they are put to work and face criticism for how they do it. Men sit on the couch with Dad and watch the game and aren't expected to do anything else.

Women are put to the same type of work they were put to in those Leave it to Beaver days.

Perhaps if women got encouraged to flop on the sofa and watch HGTV with Mom and men were expected to go out and mow the lawn while Dad criticised their job, the numbers would be different.

[treestar]

4. LOL, so true

Baby boomers are in middle age, too. And their parents are from that generation that thought criticism was the way to raise children (overgeneralizing of course - but my family is like that)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. When I read the OP I thought that was going to be the reason

It's true in far too many households and is the reason that my several of my friends don't like family gatherings.

[Peregrine Took]

5. Anyone ever feel that you will be "happy" when "X" happens, such as retiring

or when you move to "Y" or graduate or get married, etc?

This is a real trap people very easy fall into - always waiting for a certain event or something to "happen" and THEN you will be happy but not 'til then.

As a wise friend once advised me, often when you get just what you had long been looking forward to - you are just trading in one set of problems for another.

[Avalux]

6. Happiness is a state of mind. There is no 'tool' to measure it and it cannot be defined.

Stating such, especially by some sort of 'scientific' standard is ridiculous. Happiness is not dependent on external circumstances. :eyes: