Happiness over the Life CourseAll the determining variables are averaged over the child’s
life up to 16. The results of each regression are presented in
Figures 1.5 (a) and (b).
In Figure 1.5 (a) we report the impact of the family vari-
ables on each of the three child outcomes. Strikingly, the
determinants of intellectual performance are very different
from the determinants of behavior and emotional health
(which are much more similar).
We can begin with economic variables like family income
and the family’s financial problems. These are very import-
ant for intellectual performance, and much less so for be-
havior or emotional health. The same is true of the effects
of parents’ education.^13
We then come to the vexed question of how children are
affected if their mothers work. Our results confirm the find-
ings of other studies that, if their mothers work (except in
their first year after the child is born), children on average
do better in school, but their behavior suffers somewhat.
There appears to be no significant effect on their emotional
well- being.^14
Another key issue is how the parents relate to the child.
Standard propositions are that parents should be (i) “in-
volved” in the child’s cognitive development and (ii) “au-
thoritative,” that is, warm but reasonably strict. In the Avon
study we have good data on involvement (reading to the
child, teaching the child, going on outings, singing to the
child). This is good for all three outcomes. Unfortunately
we do not have good data on authoritative parenting, but
we can identify overauthoritarian and aggressive parenting
(shouting and hitting). This is correlated with bad behavior
and poor emotional health (though there may also be ele-
ments of reverse causation at work here).