Happiness is...living and eating with your parents [Independent.ie]
- Published: 01 March 2011
Children who grow up in a traditional two-parent family and regularly eat an evening meal with their parents are more likely to be happy with their lives, according to a landmark UK report published today.
The study, which is tracking members of 40,000 households across Britain, concludes that eating a family meal at least three times a week is key to building strong bonds between parents and their children.
However, it warns that the longer a couple stays together the more dissatisfied partners are likely to become with each other. Parents of children under the age of five come under the greatest strain.
The findings are among the first results to emerge from Understanding Society, a £50m, government-funded study following the lives of 100,000 people in 40,000 households across the country.
Conducted by academics from the universities of Essex, Oxford, Warwick and Surrey, the research details individuals’ attitudes towards politics, climate change, family relationships, work, health and education. The first wave of findings, released today, comes ahead of the government’s own separate initiative to measure national well-being, which will be launched in April.
Today’s study reinforced the central importance of the traditional family unit to children’s development.
Married couples are most likely to be happy with their relationships, while family breakdown does more damage to children than living in poverty, the study found.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
