如今，“恐婚恐育”已经成为一个社会现象，讲述婚姻育儿阴暗面的话题或者电视剧总能引发热切讨论。尤其是每次遇到丧偶式婚姻、离婚、出轨、家暴等新闻时，公众的情绪总是空前高涨，似乎让更多人坚定了“不结婚，不生孩子”的决心。然而谁也逃不过“真香”定律，到了一定年纪，这其中的好多人，还是按部就班地结婚生子，在朋友圈幸福地晒起了宝宝。这不禁让我们开始重新思考，既然生孩子让人痛苦，为什么还有那么多人在生？
D90:既然生孩子让人痛苦，为什么还有那么多人在生？
For the past twenty years or so, social scientists have affirmed what parents think when they are at their most exasperated and dyspeptic: children make you miserable.
在过去 20 年左右的时间里，社会科学家断言父母在最愤怒阴郁时会觉得，孩子让你痛苦。
If children make parents unhappy, why do they keep having them? The puzzle, says Letizia Mencarini of Bocconi University, is why isn’t fertility even lower in countries where people have a choice? Parents far outnumber the childless at every stage of adulthood. A new generation of research helps answer that question, and suggests that children are more likely to make parents happy than was once thought.
如果孩子让父母不开心，那父母们为什么还在继续生呢？博科尼大学的莱蒂齐亚·门卡林尼表示，令人费解的是，为什么在人们有选择的国家，生育率竟然没有更低？在每个年龄段的成年群体中，做父母的人数都远远超过不生育的人数。新一代的研究帮助回答了这个问题，而且表明孩子比我们曾经以为的更有可能让父母开心。
The new research is based on longer, more detailed statistical series measuring happiness — usually defined as “subjective well-being” — along with new techniques to analyse links between it and parenthood.
新一代的研究基于更长、更详细的统计序列，这些序列能够衡量幸福指数（通常被定义为“主观幸福感”）。研究还采用了新技术来分析幸福感与父母身份之间的关系。
It found that everywhere, happier people are more likely to have children.
这项研究发现在各个国家，幸福的人都更有可能生孩子。
Sadly, a second finding of the research, shows that though happier people are more likely to have children, it does not follow that children necessarily keep them cheerful. That depends on other things.
可悲的是，研究的第二个发现表明，尽管幸福的人更有可能生孩子，但这并不意味着孩子一定会让父母保持幸福。幸福与否取决于其他事情。
The most important influence seems to be the pressure of work. It has long been known that the difficulty of balancing the demands of work and home life increase exponentially when children arrive and this results in a significant amount of stress, especially for the mother, who is usually the main caregiver.
最重要的影响因素似乎是工作压力。众所周知，当孩子降临时，平衡工作和家庭生活的难度呈指数级增长，这导致了巨大的压力，尤其是对母亲，她们往往是主要照顾者。
This has policy implications too. For governments which want to get their birth rates up, or simply put grins on the faces of their citizens, providing better child care seems to work well. It increases both people’s happiness and their desire to have children. Children, in short, do seem to bring about happiness. And happiness brings about children.
这一发现也有一些政策层面的暗示。对于那些想要提高出生率，或者只是想要公民幸福快乐的政府，提供更好的儿童保育服务似乎非常有效。这不但可以提升人们的幸福感，还能让他们更有生育的积极性。简而言之，孩子似乎确实能带来幸福，而幸福也是生孩子的前提。
affirm/əˈfɜːrm/
v. 断言；声称，申明
例句：She affirmed her innocence.
词义辨析
affirm, confirm
affirm 是指“非常笃定地陈述某件事”，而 confirm 则是指“证实、确认后批准某件事”。
例句：The receptionist confirmed the hotel reservations.
exasperated/ɪɡˈzæspəreɪtɪd/
adj. 被激怒的；恼怒的；极厌烦的
词性拓展：exasperate (v.)
例句：She was exasperated by the reporter's questions.
dyspeptic/dɪsˈpeptɪk/
adj. 易怒的，脾气坏的；消化不良的
近义词：bad-tempered
fertility/fərˈtɪləti/
n.（动植物的）生殖力
词性拓展：fertile (adj.)
搭配短语：fertile soil
搭配短语：Fertile Crescent
outnumber/ˌaʊtˈnʌmbər/
v. 在数量上超过，比…多
例句：In our office the women outnumber the men.
adulthood/ˈædʌlthʊd/
n. 成年（时期）
词根词缀：-hood（时期，身份）
相关词汇：childhood; neighborhood
subjective/səbˈdʒektɪv/
adj. 主观的
反义词：objective
parenthood/ˈperənthʊd/
n. 为人父母，家长身份
词根词缀：-hood（时期，身份）
follow/ˈfɑːloʊ/
v. 产生…结果；是…的可能结果
例句：Although I agreed last time, it doesn't follow that I will again.
exponentially/ˌekspəˈnenʃəli/
adv.（增长率）越来越快地，呈几何数（增长）地
词性拓展：exponent (n.)
词性拓展：exponential (adj.)
例句：We are looking for exponential growth in our investment.
例句：The world population has increased exponentially.
caregiver/ˈkerɡɪvər/
n. 看护者，护理员
相关词汇：care（照顾）
相关词汇：giver（提供的人）
implication/ˌɪmplɪˈkeɪʃn/
n. 含意；暗指，暗示
词性拓展：imply (v.)
例句：The implication in her article is that being a housewife isn't a decent job.
grin/ɡrɪn/
n. 露齿笑，咧嘴笑，龇牙笑
词性拓展：grin (v.)
例句：She grinned delightfully when she heard the news.
例句：She had a big grin on her face when she heard the news.
bring about
引起；导致
例句：What brought about the change in his attitude?
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