The Impact of Decreased Capacity to Experience Pleasure on Leisure Coping Strategies among Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder

ABSTRACT

Anhedonia is a key clinical feature of major depressive disorder (MDD) and affects one's capacity to experience pleasure. This study examined the extent to which anhedonia disrupts the use and the effect of leisure coping strategies. A cross-sectional online survey design was used to recruit individuals with MDD (n = 155). Structural equation modeling was performed to test the models of relationships among perceived stress, anhedonia, leisure coping strategies, and depressive symptoms. The results show that a high level of anhedonia was associated with lower utilization and effects of leisure as a coping strategy (β = −.484, p < .01). However, after accounting for the effect of anhedonia, leisure coping strategies still had a significant negative association with depressive symptoms (β = −.179, p < .05). The results highlighted the significant negative impact of anhedonia on leisure coping strategies and supported its effectiveness in the presence of anhedonia.

KEYWORDS:

• anhedonia
• leisure coping
• major depressive disorder
• stress

Acknowledgment

We thank Dr. Peggy Thoits, who kindly and passionately provided thoughtful comments for our manuscript, and Dr. Valerie Markley, who assisted us access to the participants and also assisted with proof-reading the manuscript. This research was funded by Indiana University's Grant-in-Aid of Doctoral Research, School of Public Health Student Research Grant, and Leisure Research Institute faculty and student small grant research program.

Notes

1 To be diagnosed with MDD, a person must experience an episode of depression to the point of seeing a medical professional. Therefore, the participants of the current study reported experiencing at least one major depressive episode, which resulted in a diagnosis.

2 The use of life stress counts was criticized in the literature as it ignores the meaning of the events (Turner & Wheaton, 1995). However, researcher-defined weighting of events has also been criticized. The current study used participant-driven weighting, interpreted as the event currently bothers him/her “a little” =1, “somewhat” = 2, and “quite a bit” = 3.

3 Although the current study had measured self-report leisure participation, it is not included in the study because the results of the correlation analysis of leisure participation with leisure coping and perceived stress were both nonsignificant. 

4 Iwasaki hypothesized a path from leisure coping strategies to immediate adaptation outcome (i.e., whether the individual perceives the coping is working, estimate = .53), and the immediate adaptation outcome to health (estimate = .39). There was no hypothesized direct path from leisure coping strategies to health. The total effect was .53 × .39 = .206.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Indiana University Bloomington.