A survey conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic found that individuals with more children and better relationship quality tended to perceive life as more meaningful. The strength of the association between life meaning and relationship quality was stronger in men than in women. The research was published in the Frontiers in Psychology.
Meaning in life refers to “the extent to which people comprehend, make sense or see significance in their lives, accompanied by the degree to which they perceive themselves to have a purpose, mission, or overarching aim in life.” It is a deeply personal and subjective concept.
For some, meaning may be derived from relationships, love, and family, while for others, it might come from personal achievements, career, or creative endeavors. Many people seek meaning through spiritual or religious beliefs, which provide a framework for understanding their existence and place in the universe.
Meaning in life plays a central role in individuals’ well-being. Different psychological factors contribute to it. These include positive emotions, certain religious and global worldviews, and the sense of self. Social support and social connection play a particularly important role, and this connection goes both ways. They improve one’s meaning in life, but people finding meaning in life are also more likely to develop social connections in a way that provides social support.
A key source of social support and social connection for most people is their families and romantic partners. With this in mind, study author Alaina I. Gold and her colleagues set out to explore the relationship between meaning in life, the quality of one’s romantic relationship, and the number of children a person has. Their expectation was that individuals in better-quality romantic relationships would find more meaning in life. Similarly, individuals with more children would tend to find greater meaning in life.
The study participants were 473 U.S. residents who reported living with a romantic partner, recruited via Prolific. The study was conducted in late 2020 and early 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were racially diverse: 32% were White, 22% were Hispanic/Latino, 22% were Asian, and 21% were Black. Additionally, 88% were employed, and 64% were married. On average, they had been cohabitating with their partner for eight years.
Study participants completed an assessment of meaning in life (six items), romantic relationship quality (the Quality of Marriage Index), and reported the number of children they had. Fifty-five percent of participants reported having no children, 21% had one child, and 25% had more than one child. The average number of children in the household was 1.66, with ages ranging from newborn to 18 years. Participants also reported their general feelings of social connectedness and degree of religiosity.
Results showed that individuals with more children and better romantic relationship quality tend to find greater meaning in life. Individuals reporting greater meaning in life also tended to be more religious and feel more socially connected. On average, men reported slightly greater meaning in life than women. The difference in meaning of life between individuals with and without children was greater than between individuals with one child and those with more than one.
In women, the strength of the association between relationship quality and meaning in life did not depend on the number of children. In men, relationship quality had the strongest association with meaning in life for childless men, and this link decreased in strength with more children. In men with more than one child, the association disappeared.
“We found that, above and beyond well-established sources of meaning such as religiosity and feeling connected to others, the quality of the relationship with a romantic partner was associated with higher meaning in life for men and women, though more strongly for men. In addition, the significant positive link between number of children and meaning in life for both genders adds to a growing body of literature that highlights how parenthood enhances meaning in life,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the links between meaning in life and family relationships. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn from the results.
The paper, “Social contributions to meaning in life: the role of romantic relationship quality, parenting, and gender,” was authored by Alaina I. Gold, Yana Ryjova, Elizabeth C. Aviv, Geoffrey W. Corner, Hannah F. Rasmussen, Yehsong Kim, and Gayla Margolin.