The Wall Street Journal blog The Juggleis on the topic of parenting and depression today with a post entitled "Is Raising Children Linked to Depression?" Sue Shellenbarger reports:

"New research shows older parents have higher rates of depression, compared with childless adults. In a study of parental status and depression among 17,469 adults over the age of 51, researchers found that having no children, either biological kids or stepchildren, was linked to lower rates of sadness, insomnia and other depressive symptoms, compared with having children. The results held true across all marital status groups, married, divorced or never married."

Hmmm. I don't know about this one. There are so many things that can lead one to depression that it's hard for me to see a direct causal relationship between parenting and depression.

Here's what I want to know: Did they look at socioeconomic status of these parents? Did they look into whether the people in the study had a history of mental health problems? Did they take into account where these people lived and what kinds of resources they had to help them in parenting (good schools, parks and playgrounds, social networks, etc.)?