University Of Cologne Research Explores How Parenthood Contributes To More Meaning In Life

Researchers Ansgar Hudde and Marita Jacob examine how parenthood contributes to individuals' sense of purpose and overall life satisfaction.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | June 19, 2025

A new study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family explores how two key components of subjective well-being, namely life satisfaction and meaning in life, tie to parenthood in Europe.

The study found that parents, irrespective of gender, social and national context, found more meaning in life, even if their life satisfaction varied. While daily stress and other unforeseen challenges may alter a parent's life satisfaction or their cognitive well-being at any given time, their sense of significance increases since their young children depend on them. This gives them a stronger sense of purpose, which in turn, adds to their meaning in life.

I recently spoke with the study's lead authors — Ansgar Hudde and Marita Jacob — from the Department of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Cologne, Germany, to discuss the various challenges parents face and whether having children is the only way to attain a "good life." Here's a summary of our conversation.

What inspired you to pursue this research?

When I was a Master's student in Barcelona, my teacher presented research on how parenthood affects life satisfaction. He showed us that having children typically doesn't give you a long-term boost in life satisfaction. I still see him — himself a loving father — shrugging his shoulders and saying, "So why do we choose to have children? I don't know!"

That stuck with me, especially when attending talks on parenthood and satisfaction later on. Over the years, that question grew larger in my mind: Maybe life satisfaction isn't the only outcome we should focus on — maybe that focus is too narrow? Perhaps we should also consider another dimension people really care about: experiencing meaning in life.

My colleague Marita Jacob and I examined this more closely and found that while not all groups of parents experience higher life satisfaction, they all experience greater meaning in life.

How does your study address causality? Is it possible that individuals with a stronger sense of meaning are more likely to become parents in the first place?

That's an excellent question! With our analyses, we can rule out several alternative explanations by statistically controlling for characteristics like age, education level and religiosity.

However, with the data we use — a large, cross-sectional study from many European countries — we cannot entirely rule out that people with a stronger sense of meaning are more likely to become parents in the first place.

But we have another ongoing study that addresses this directly. There, we focus on Germany, where we can trace people over time, with information on their satisfaction and meaning levels before and after parenthood.

We find that satisfaction rises sharply during pregnancy and declines back to pre-parenthood baseline within about a year and a half. Meaning also rises during pregnancy, but it stays elevated in the years thereafter.

Your paper notes that lower socioeconomic status mothers often report high levels of meaning in parenthood. Do you think this is partly because they may lack other widely recognized sources of identity or purpose, such as career advancement or leisure?

We cannot test this directly, but we believe this is a likely factor.

Often, jobs held by people with higher socioeconomic status are more likely to provide opportunities to experience meaning at work. People with higher socioeconomic status typically receive greater societal recognition, so they're more likely to have society reflect back that what they do has purpose and meaning.

They also typically have more time and resources for meaningful activities during their free time — sports, arts, volunteering, being active in associations — and all of these can be sources of meaning in life.

Do you anticipate that the sense of meaning derived from parenting changes over time (for example, between early childhood and post-parenting phases)?

That's an excellent point worth exploring in more detail. Based on our analyses so far, we would expect that the "meaning premium" is greatest during the very first period after childbirth, but that some portion remains for life.

Given the evidence that women often experience lower life satisfaction from parenting (due to greater caregiving burdens), what psychological or social interventions do you think can enhance both satisfaction and meaning for mothers?

When we look at all our results, we interpret them this way: parenthood contributes to meaning for all groups, no matter how intense their parenting is or how challenging their circumstances.

However, parenthood only contributes to satisfaction when it's less demanding and not too intense. The gender differences fit this picture: for fathers, on average, parenting is less intense and comes with lower burdens in terms of time, physical and emotional energy than for mothers.

Measures that reduce burdens and moderate the intensity for mothers could therefore help. Policy can improve conditions for parenting by providing financial security and childcare to lower time burdens. Finally, policies can encourage gender equity in families with both mothers and fathers — for example, through parental leave schemes that encourage equal sharing.

When both parents share housework and care — including the mental load — more equally, this moderates the burden for women.

Our results show that in Nordic countries, motherhood comes with both higher satisfaction and higher meaning. These countries tend to follow these ideas: support parents financially, offer good childcare and encourage gender equity.

You describe meaning in terms of future orientation and contributing to something beyond oneself. Do you think non-parents can access a similar kind of meaning?

While parenthood is a major source of meaning for many, there are many ways non-parents can pursue similar types of meaning. The most similar would be anything that supports and helps other people.

Some find such opportunities in their work; this might seem most obvious in caring and teaching professions, but it exists elsewhere too. People might also derive meaning from volunteering and supporting others, children, elderly or anyone in between.

Such activities could be particularly powerful when they serve people who are especially in need: children from challenging family circumstances, the sick and poor, or people experiencing loneliness. Overall, there are countless ways we can contribute to something beyond ourselves.

Since meaning can emerge from difficult circumstances, do you think there's a risk that structural inequalities (e.g., lack of support for single or low-income parents) are downplayed or overlooked?

This is really important. Policy discourse should generally pay greater attention to social inequalities and the experiences of groups in less privileged circumstances, such as single or low-income parents.

Concerning parenthood and well-being, however, the topic of meaning is currently marginal in policy debates or in academic research in several fields, including sociology, demography or economics.

But once the discourse shifts and pays greater attention to meaning — which we believe it should — it's vital that this factor isn't used as an excuse to downplay the challenging circumstances and need for support that many parents face. They need support to thrive as parents and feel that their life is not only meaningful, but also enjoyable — a good life, in short.