An Empirical Study on the Impact of Number of Children on the Happiness of Married and Parenting Individuals

In the context of China's evolving fertility policies, the influence of offspring count on the subjective well-being of married individuals with children has emerged as a pivotal indicator for assessing policy efficacy and family welfare. Utilizing data from the 2021 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS2021), this study focuses on the cohort of married individuals who have at least one biolo-gi-cal child. An ordered Logit model is employed, complemented by non-linear tests and stratified regression analyses, to systematically investigate the under-lying mechanisms through which offspring count impacts subjective well-being. The findings reveal that offspring count exerts a statistically significant and positive influence on subjective well-being, with this effect being particularly pronounced in families with three or more children. No evidence of diminishing marginal re-turns is observed. This impact is more salient among male re-spondents and those residing in rural areas. The robustness of these conclusions is validated through variable substitution and ordered Probit model sensitivity analyses. The study's results provide novel empirical insights into the determi-nants of family happiness during the fertility policy transition period and offer valuable references for re-fining supportive measures for the three-child policy, advancing gender equality, and constructing a comprehensive family support system.