Thirty-six years later, in 1987, Dr Franz located 94 of the kindergartens, then 41. Using a four-hour battery of surveys and interviews, she assessed their adult happiness -- their enjoyment of their jobs, marriages, children and friends and their general zest for life.

Nothing that people typically consider prescriptions for happiness had anything to do with how fulfilled the participants felt. Their parents wealth or poverty had no impact on their adult happiness. Neither moves, major injuries or even parents divorces, alcoholism or death. Dr. Franz discovered only one clear predictor of later happiness -- warm, affectionate mothers and fathers who cuddled their children and enjoyed spending time with them.
"I've always been affectionate with my children," says Dr. Franz. "That's just how I am. But the study suggests that parental warmth and affection from fathers as well as mothers equip children to create happy adult lives for themselves."

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