Depression and leisure-based meaning-making: anhedonia as a mediating factor

ABSTRACT

Leisure experience has particularly positive impacts on people’s health and well-being when it is perceived as meaningful. Research also suggests that mental health conditions, such as depression, inhibit people from deriving meaningfulness from their leisure. However, it remains underexplored what in depression has this negative effect on leisure-based meaning-making. Anhedonia, one of the depression’s key symptoms that undermines one’s ability to experience enjoyment, may be an underlying mechanism. This is consistent with recent evidence that positive affect plays a significant role in experiencing meaning in life. The current study examined the relationship between depression, anhedonia, and leisure-based meaning-making. A total of 155 community-living individuals with depression participated in a cross-sectional online survey. Pearson’s correlation analysis suggested that leisure-based meaning-making was negatively associated with both depression and anhedonia. However, the following mediation analyses found that the relationship between depression and leisure-based meaning-making was fully mediated by anhedonia, making depression’s direct effect non-significant. Similar patterns were observed in sub-dimensions of leisure-based meaning-making: connection/belonging and identity. The findings suggest that the hedonic factor plays a role in leisure-based meaning making.

KEYWORDS:

• Leisure
• meaning-making
• enjoyment
• anhedonia
• depression
• mental health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Indiana University.

Notes on contributors

Shinichi Nagata

Shinichi Nagata is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences at University of Tsukuba, Japan. His research focuses on community inclusion of people with psychiatric disabilities, which addresses full participation in all domains of life, including leisure.

Shintaro Kono

Shintaro Kono is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta, Canada. His main research interests are in the relationships between leisure and subjective well-being. He has studied this topic from a global perspective.