The Relation Between Happiness and Number of Siblings. Michael W. Passer. University of Washington

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1 Passer, M., Psych 209, Section AG 1 The Relation Between Happiness and Number of Siblings Michael W. Passer University of Washington Class Survey: My Variables 2 Current Happiness 3 Family Satisfaction 27 c_number of Siblings NEW TOPIC

2 Passer, M., Psych 209, Section AG 2 The Relation Between Happiness and Number of Siblings Many studies have examined the characteristics of depressed, anxious, or otherwise unhappy people. Yet, according to Diener and Seligman (2002), no studies have investigated the characteristics of very happy people. The primary purpose of their study was to identify personal, psychological, and social factors associated with high happiness. Diener and Seligman also hoped to determine whether any of these factors was either sufficient to produce high happiness or necessary to attain high happiness. At a midwestern university, 222 students completed questionnaires and psychological tests measuring their general level of positive and negative emotionality, personality traits, social relationships, satisfaction with life, and other background characteristics. People who knew the students rated how often the students experienced positive and negative emotions. For 51 days, students also recorded their daily emotions in a diary. Based on these measures, the researchers identified the 10 percent of students who consistently were the most happy, the 10 percent who consistently were the most unhappy, and a group (27 percent) that displayed average happiness. The results indicated that very happy students had the most satisfying social relationships and spent the most amount of time socializing with close friends, family, and romantic partners. Compared to the unhappy students, the happiest students were more outgoing, agreeable, and conscientious, and they worried less about things in general. However, compared to their average-happiness peers, the happiest students did not differ in how much money they said they had, their level of religious activity or exercise, their grade point average, or their physical attractiveness as judged by others.

3 Passer, M., Psych 209, Section AG 3 Diener and Seligman (2002) emphasized that, although stronger social relationships were associated with greater happiness, some unhappy students also had satisfying social relationships. They also found a similar pattern for the other variables that were associated with happiness. Thus, while acknowledging that their conclusions had to be limited because their study was correlational, Diener and Seligman suggested that no one factor, by itself, seemed to be sufficient to produce high happiness. Rather, they speculated that having satisfying social relationships along with a combination of other psychological and social factors seemed necessary to produce high levels of happiness. Although Diener and Seligman (2002) studied participants family relationships, they did not distinguish between parental and sibling relationships. There are several reasons why having siblings might influence one s happiness and general well-being. For example, siblings can provide or withhold social support. Milevsky (2005) studied sibling social support among 305 college students. He found that students who reported lower levels of sibling social support were less satisfied with their lives and more depressed than students who reported higher levels of support. Siblings also can be a source of conflict. In childhood, such conflict may increase as the number of siblings grows and each child has to compete more often for parental attention and tangible objects, such as toys. Further, childhood sibling rivalry may carry over into adulthood. Thus, the main purpose of my study is to examine whether there is an association between the number of siblings people have and their overall happiness. Based on the potential for increased sibling rivalry, I hypothesize that there will be a negative correlation between people s happiness and the number of siblings in their family.

4 Passer, M., Psych 209, Section AG 4 Method As part of a class project, a 98-item questionnaire was administered to students in a psychology research methods course. Responses were obtained from 180 of the 200 enrolled students. Seven questionnaire items measured "core" happiness and satisfaction variables originally assessed by Diener and Seligman (2002). The remaining 91 items measured new personal variables based on questions developed by students in the class. Two core variables and one new variable are relevant to my study. One core variable, current overall happiness, was measured on a 5-point scale by the item "In general, how happy are you?" (1 = "Very unhappy" to 5 = Very happy"). The other core variable, overall satisfaction with family relationships, was measured on a 7-point scale by the item "In general, how satisfied are you with your relationships with family members?" (1 = Very dissatisfied to 7 = Very satisfied ). The new variable, representing the number of siblings in each student s family, was measured by the openended item "How many brother and sisters do you have?" Results Overall, students rated themselves as moderately happy (M = 3.67, SD = 1.05) and somewhat satisfied with their family relationships (M = 4.92, SD = 1.09). As the histogram in Figure 1 shows, students happiness ratings ranged across the entire 5-point scale, with both a mode and median of 4.00, corresponding to Happy on the rating scale. Consistent with Diener and Seligman's (2002) findings, a statistically significant positive correlation between happiness ratings and ratings of family relationship

5 Passer, M., Psych 209, Section AG 5 satisfaction (r =.43, p <.05) revealed that higher levels of happiness were associated with greater feelings of overall satisfaction concerning family relationships. The number of siblings in students families ranged from 0 to 8, with a mode of 1.00, median of 1.50, mean of 1.38, and standard deviation of A statistically significant but weak positive correlation was found between number of siblings and happiness (r =.21, p <.05). This correlation, portrayed in the scatterplot in Figure 2, indicates that having a greater number of siblings was associated with higher levels of happiness. Discussion The results of this study replicate Diener and Seligman s (2002) finding that people who report greater satisfaction with the family relationships also tend to report higher levels of happiness. Because this study, like theirs, was correlational, no clear causal conclusions can be drawn. It may be that having satisfying relations with family members contributes to happiness, but the reverse may also be true: greater happiness may make it easier for people to establish more satisfying relations with family members. Alternatively, there may be no direct causal relation between happiness and family relationship satisfaction. Instead, third variables not controlled for in the present study may be the true causes of differences among people in both happiness and family relationship satisfaction The major goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that there would be a negative correlation between people s self-reported happiness and the number of siblings in their family. The results do not support the hypothesis and, to the contrary, suggest that

6 Passer, M., Psych 209, Section AG 6 the association between happiness and number of siblings may be in the opposite direction. Again, clear causal conclusions cannot be drawn from correlation data, but to speculate, it may be that among adults, having more siblings provides a greater sense of social support, a greater sense of shared family history, more opportunities to share current experiences, or other benefits that might contribute to personal happiness. Beyond its correlational nature, the present study had other limitations. Most importantly, the number of siblings reported by each student was not independently verified, and no assessment was made of the number of biological siblings versus stepsiblings. Further research will need to overcome these limitations and tease out possible causal factors that might explain why having more siblings appears to be associated with somewhat greater happiness.

7 Passer, M., Psych 209, Section AG 7 References Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13, doi: 10:1134/ Milevsky, A. (2005). Compensatory patterns of sibling support in emerging adulthood: Variations in loneliness, self-esteem, depression and life satisfaction. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22, Retrieved from

8 Passer, M., Psych 209, Section AG 8 Figure 1: Histogram Histogram: Happiness Among Psychology 209 Students Frequency Scale Rating of Happiness

9 Passer, M., Psych 209, Section AG 9 Figure 2: Scatterplot Corrrelation Between Number of Siblings and Self-Rated Happiness 5 4 Happiness Rating Number of Siblings 8