Individuals typically believe that children increase parental happiness (see Hansen, 2012), but decades of research have found little support for this contention (eg, Dolan, Peasgood, & White, 2008). In a recent article, Nelson, Kushlev, English, Dunn, and Lyubomirsky (2013) addressed this issue with analyses of data from the World Values Survey (WVS; 2006) and an experience-sampling data set (Carstensen et al., 2011). Though Nelson et al. carefully avoided making causal claims, they nevertheless concluded that the results provide “strong evidence challenging the widely held [academic] perception that children are a source of reduced well-being”(p. 8).

In this Commentary, we report a reanalysis of the data, which suggests that it is premature to abandon the idea that children reduce happiness. A reassessment of Studies 1 and 2 in Nelson et al., prompted by econometric and conceptual concerns, failed to support the conclusions of the authors. 1 Parents did report higher levels of well-being than nonparents did, but the difference appears to have been entirely driven by omitted factors—such as marital status and parental age—that were highly correlated with both the presence of children and well-being. We found that controlling for such factors, which are available in the data, erases the positive relationship between well-being and parenthood. A reanalysis seems especially critical in light of the importance that Nelson et al. attribute to these findings for “those planning a family” and for “emerging evolutionary perspectives” of parenting (p. 9).