The positive emotions induced by child cuteness are an essential component of parenting (Kringelbach et al., 2016), which is considered the ultimate form of altruism (Preston, 2013). Infantile characteristics, such as large eyes, short nose, narrow chin, and rounded forehead, evoke positive emotions and promote caretaking behaviors (Glocker et al., 2009). Cuteness narrows attention and increases motivation to care for the vulnerable. After viewing a series of baby animals, people perform better on behavioral tasks that require care and attention (Nittono et al., 2012; Sherman et al., 2009). In contrast, facial conditions that weaken infantile features, such as cleft lip, are associated with lower cuteness ratings and reduced motivation to care (Holly et al., 2017). Similarly, negative personality descriptions of children reduce perceived cuteness and motivation to care for them (Takamatsu et al., 2023).
The parental motivational system may be compromised by reduced positive emotional experiences among parents. Mothers with anxious attachment styles self-report low positive emotions and greater fluctuations in positive mood during daily parenting (Somers et al., 2020). Psychopathology that impairs emotion regulation reduces motivation to nurture children (Rodriguez & Pu, 2020). Across cultures, postpartum depression reduces the quality of mother-child interaction, the mother’s sensitivity to the child’s needs, and the odds of using safety measures for the child (for review, see Field, 2010). In depression, one of the cardinal conditions is anhedonia, which is characterized by reduced hedonic capacity and decreased interest in and responses to positive stimuli (for review, see Vanderlind & Joormann, 2019). If parental anhedonia is associated with reduced positive emotions, including child cuteness, it may have detrimental effects on parenting experiences and roles. In the next section, we introduce anhedonia and review research on the role of anhedonia in reducing pleasurable experiences.
Anhedonia
In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013), anhedonia is described as “a lack of enjoyment from, engagement in, or energy for life's experiences, and deficits in the capacity to feel pleasure and take interest in things.” Anhedonia is a key symptom in the diagnosis of melancholic depression, a subtype characterized by a reduced hedonic capacity and notable physical symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Anhedonia is present in approximately 70–95% of depressed individuals, with notable variations in severity (Dichter, 2010; Whitton & Pizzagalli, 2022). Recent research has focused on anhedonia rather than depression with symptoms of anhedonia, revealing the detrimental effects on mental health (Ducasse et al., 2018) in both clinical and nonclinical samples (Heininga et al., 2019; Pizzagalli et al., 2005).
Independent of depression, high levels of anhedonia are associated with reduced positive emotions (Heininga et al., 2017; Werner-Seidler et al., 2013), increased negative emotions (Horan et al., 2006; Kerns et al., 2008), and fewer facial expressions in response to positive stimuli (Fiorito & Simons, 1994). Individuals suffering from anhedonia also show reduced motivation to expend behavioral efforts toward rewards (Dowd & Barch, 2010). In an experiential sampling study, anhedonia is associated with fewer momentary positive emotions (Heininga et al., 2019). Although these studies have demonstrated the link between anhedonia and positive affect dysfunction, none have examined the role of anhedonia in the experience of cuteness-induced positive emotions. Although positive emotions tend to be bundled into one, identifying which emotion is disrupted in psychopathology is important for understanding mechanisms (Gruber et al., 2011; Khazanov & Ruscio, 2016). In particular, perceptions of child cuteness and subsequent positive emotions are central aspects of the parenting system (Schaller, 2018), and understanding the dysfunction may have practical implications for adaptive parenting.
In addition, few studies have examined the role of anhedonia in parenting. Nelis et al. (2019) found that parental reactions to adolescent children’s positive emotions predicted their concurrent depressive and anhedonia symptoms and long-term emotional well-being. Griffith et al. (2023) investigated the effects of parent’s anhedonia symptoms on adolescents’ mental health. They found that the symptoms of anhedonia were uniquely related to lower parent-child relationship quality. These studies underscore the important role that parents play in the well-being of the adolescent child, while also demonstrating the negative impact of parental anhedonia on the child's well-being.
While previous studies have examined the effects of parental anhedonia on adolescent children, early childhood is also a critical period in which high parent-child relationship quality predicts positive child developmental outcomes in several domains (Elicker et l., 1992; Lanjekar et al., 2022). In this study, we focused on associations between anhedonia and daily emotional and parenting experiences among parents of young children.
Purpose and Study Hypotheses
This study investigated the daily emotional experiences of mothers with preschool children to determine the role of anhedonia in shaping emotional and parenting experiences. The experiential sampling method (ESM; Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1987) was used to collect momentary experiences. Several studies indicate that anhedonia is related to the decreased intensity of positive emotions (Kern et al., 2008) and reduced quality of parent-child relationships in adolescence (Griffith et al., 2023). Positive emotions encompass a wide array of affective and motivational responses (Gruber et al., 2011), but the effects of anhedonia on cuteness-induced positive emotions are unknown. Since cuteness is a critical part of the affective system in parenting (Kringelbach et al., 2016), its disturbance may result in compromised parenting. Based on previous studies (Griffith et al., 2023; Somers et al., 2020), parental anhedonia should be associated with children's negative emotional states and lower parent-child relationship quality.
Hypotheses
H1a: Anhedonia is associated with a lower frequency of positive emotions induced by cuteness in children.
Moreover, to better understand the effects of anhedonia on parenting, we included the following hypotheses:
H1b: Anhedonia is related to higher frequency of negative emotions.
H2: Anhedonia is related to the tendency to perceive one’s child as unhappy.
H3: Anhedonia is related to lower self-rated quality of mother-child interaction.
H4: Anhedonia is related to higher self-rated fatigue.