Cinderella may have had an evil stepmother and a pair of ugly stepsisters to contend with, but the next time you settle down to the fairytale, spare a thought for parents with three daughters under the same roof.
Having three daughters and no sons can lead to a minor dent in mothers’ wellbeing that can take a whole decade to pass, according to researchers.
Psychologists reached the conclusion after studying the life satisfaction of parents who already had two children of the same sex and went on to have another baby.
The fall in wellbeing was seen only among mothers who had three daughters and no sons, leading the researchers to ask whether mothers are more affected than fathers by the sex of their children.
“It seems that mothers do not want to have too many children of the same sex as them,” the authors write in the study. “It is possible this reflects not just an issue of children, but one of household composition, with the mother not wanting too many females in the household.”
Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioural science at the London School of Economics, teamed up with colleagues to assess the impact on wellbeing of having three children of the same sex. The work drew on surveys completed by 17,000 people born in 1958 and 17,000 born in 1970 throughout their lives.
Participants in the study were quizzed at least once every decade about their subjective wellbeing and answered further questions on whether they had children and how satisfied they felt with life.
Parents who had two children of the same sex were more likely to go on to have a third baby and have that child faster than parents who had one of each sex, the study found.
But the intriguing result came when the researchers looked at the third birth. When parents had two children of the same sex and went on to have a third, their wellbeing dropped slightly over the next 10 years if that child was of the same sex too.
Writing in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, the authors say the subjective wellbeing findings are “driven entirely” by mothers who don’t have a boy after having two girls. “It is possible that, consistent with demographic literature, mothers are simply more affected by childbirth than fathers,” they say.
According to Dolan, parents who have two children of the same sex are more likely to try for a third in the hope that they will “win” the birth lottery. “Our data suggests that the disappointment is mostly from mothers with two girls not having a boy, as opposed to mothers of two boys not having a girl.”
The study suggests that parents may fare better if they have two children of the same sex rather than going for a third to try for a mix of sexes. Parents that had two children of the same sex experienced a boost to their wellbeing, but this was mostly driven by fathers when the children were two girls, with mothers showing a delayed improvement in their own wellbeing. “Perhaps this is due to an outdated preference for boys,” Dolan said.
