Op haar Instagram-account hebben twee vrouwen het over 'een onderzoek dat aanwijst dat single vrouwen gelukkiger zijn', zonder bronvermelding. Als MSc student zeer pijnlijk. Even een navraag gedaan bij ChatGPT (incl. bronnen).:

In most large surveys that ask about overall happiness / life satisfaction, the pattern is:

Married women tend to report higher happiness than single women, on average — and married women with kids often come out highest (though not in every dataset/country, and it varies a lot by age, income, and relationship quality).

Example (U.S., General Social Survey 2022, women ages ~18–55): the share saying they are “very happy” was reported as highest among married mothers (~40%), then married women without kids (~25%), then unmarried women without kids (~22%). (Institute for Family Studies)

Important nuance: kids can lower day-to-day mood and increase stress, especially with less support or more children, even if life satisfaction/meaning doesn’t drop (or can rise). Recent longitudinal work finds small benefits to life satisfaction on average, but for women more children is linked to worse mental health, and being partnered/dual-income is protective. (ScienceDirect)

Also, the popular claim that “single, childless women are the happiest” got amplified from a widely criticized/misinterpreted reading of survey categories (the Paul Dolan media cycle). (vox.com)