Meta-analysis of empirical studies on life satisfaction and number of children in different countries

Today, in the general beliefs of the Iranian society, there is the impression that a happy life is a life without child or at most one child. Is this common belief true in reality? Are parents with no or less child more satisfied? To answer this question, 44 empirical researches in different countries are analyzed through "formal vote counting" method. The researches analyzing shows the researches results are very diverse and a general and absolute proposition could not be said. In particular, the relationship between life satisfaction and the number of children is caused by intermediary factors such as life course, marital status, socioeconomic system & etc. But there are less researches show negative relationship. There are a variety of families in researches which show a negative or neutral relationship; such as women have illegitimate children. If only ordinary families (include father, mother and children) are considered, the relationship would be positive and life satisfaction would even increase by number of children. Also, the economic welfare system and parental support policies can perfectly affect the relationship between life satisfaction and the number of children.