Peer-reviewed article
Parenthood and Women's Subjective Well-being in a Low-income, High-fertility Context: A Case Study from Rural Gaza Province, Mozambique.
Hayford SR, Badolato L, Agadjanian V ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how motherhood affects women's life satisfaction in rural Mozambique, where children traditionally provide material support to aging parents. Researchers surveyed ever-married women in Gaza Province to understand the relationship between children's characteristics and mothers' subjective well-being. The findings show that having young children at home reduces women's life satisfaction, while having older children working abroad increases it, suggesting complex links between child age, household economics, and maternal well-being.
Key points
- Having young children living in the household is negatively associated with mothers' life satisfaction
- Having older children living outside the country is positively associated with mothers' life satisfaction
- The associations between child characteristics and mother's well-being are not fully explained by economic conditions alone
- In high-fertility, subsistence agricultural contexts, the relationship between parenthood and subjective well-being differs from low-fertility settings
- Child age and residential status are important distinguishing factors when examining how parenthood affects maternal well-being
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study based on survey data from one region of Mozambique, so it cannot establish causality or determine whether young children reduce well-being or whether less satisfied women have more young children. The study focuses only on ever-married women and does not capture experiences of unmarried or childless women.
Abstract
In rural high-fertility settings where people depend on subsistence agriculture, children are expected to provide material support to their parents in later life, with implications for physical health and material well-being of parents. Substantial research has examined these material consequences. Fewer studies have examined the implications of parenthood for subjective well-being in these contexts, in contrast to a larger body of research in low-fertility contexts. The existing studies of parenthood and subjective well-being in high-fertility contexts suggest that this relationship depends on parents' gender and age, but do not distinguish between the impact of parent life stage and the impact of child age and other child characteristics. In this study, we draw on data from a population-based survey of ever-married women in rural Gaza Province, Mozambique, to show how mid-life women's subjective well-being, measured as life satisfaction, is related to the number, age, and residential status of children. We also investigate whether the association between children's characteristics and mother's life satisfaction is mediated by other domains related to anticipated returns to childbearing, such as household economic conditions and mother's physical and mental health. Results show that having young children in the household is negatively associated with life satisfaction, while having older children living outside the country is positively associated with life satisfaction. These associations are not fully explained by potential mechanisms such as economic conditions. We reflect on the implications of these findings in a context of changing livelihood strategies. Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11113-025-09978-8.