Science Daily reveals that parents are (as we suspected) getting it all wrong – they think their 10-year-olds are happier – and their 15-year-olds are unhappier – than they really are:
The study was conducted by Dr Belén López-Pérez, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Developmental and Social Psychology at Plymouth University, and Ellie Wilson, a recent graduate of the BSc (Hons) Psychology course.
They questioned a total of 357 children and adolescents from two different schools in Spain, along with their parents, and their happiness was assessed using a range of self-reporting measures and ratings.
The results showed that parents were inclined to score a child or adolescents’ happiness closely in line with their own emotional feelings, whereas in fact there were notable differences in the child’s own reports.
In this regard, children and adolescents reported very similar levels of happiness, however parents also reported different levels depending on the age of their child. Thus, the study not only showed discrepancies between informants but also a decline in the level of happiness in parents of adolescents.
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So yeah, it’s no news that parents of adolescents are less “happy.” The kids, though, are relatively unaffected. That’s the silver lining here, right?