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Are pregnant women happier? Racial and ethnic differences in the relationship between pregnancy and life satisfaction in the United States

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Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between pregnancy and life satisfaction for US women of childbearing age using a large sample from the 2005 to 2009 waves of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The results show strong differences by race and ethnicity. Pregnancy has a significant positive correlation with happiness for Whites and Hispanics, but no relationship for Blacks. This differential in the marginal effect of pregnancy is in addition to a general decrease in satisfaction for Black women, independent of being pregnant. The results cannot be explained by differences in other demographics such age, income, education, or physical health status. Within each racial/ethnic group, the results are consistent across different categories for all these characteristics. Racial and ethnic differences in the effects of pregnancy on support from others can partly explain this result. For Whites and Hispanic women, pregnancy increases their feelings of social and emotional support from others, while pregnant Black women report lower levels of social and emotional support than non-pregnant Black women.

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Notes

  1. An alternative would be to have the following mutually exclusive groups: white non-Hispanic, white Hispanic, blacks, Asians, Native Americans, and “other” (with each of the non-white groups including both Hispanics and non-Hispanics). Because the overwhelming majority of Hispanics in this sample categorize themselves as being either white or “other race”, the choice of categorization does not alter the results of the paper.

  2. This is comparable with pregnancy rates for women between 18 and 45 in the 2006–2010 waves of the National Survey of Family Growth.

  3. See Clark and Oswald (2002), Easterlin (2001), and Gardner and Oswald (2007).

  4. See Di Tella et al. (2001) and Blanchflower and Oswald (2008).

  5. In 2006, the average age of mother for first birth was 22.7 years for black mothers, compared to 26.0 and 23.1 for white and Hispanic mothers, respectively (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National vital Statistics Report, Volume 57, Number 7, January 2009).

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  1. Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, USA

    Paul Hagstrom & Stephen Wu

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  1. Paul Hagstrom
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Correspondence to Paul Hagstrom.

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Hagstrom, P., Wu, S. Are pregnant women happier? Racial and ethnic differences in the relationship between pregnancy and life satisfaction in the United States. Rev Econ Household 14, 507–527 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-014-9239-8

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