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New research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science reveals that moments of pride and awe experienced by parents are not only emotionally meaningful — they are also psychologically rewarding. The study found that parental pride is linked to increased life satisfaction and reduced negative emotions, while parental awe contributes to greater meaning, psychological richness, and satisfaction in life. These emotional highs may help make parenting feel more fulfilling, despite its many challenges.
The researchers were interested in understanding how positive emotions specific to parenting — particularly pride and awe — might contribute to parents’ psychological well-being. While previous research has explored the stress and demands of caregiving, relatively little attention has been paid to the emotional rewards of parenthood. Pride and awe were chosen because they often arise in parenting and reflect two different psychological orientations: pride is typically self-focused and linked to achievement, while awe tends to be other-focused and tied to wonder and connectedness.
“I’ve always been interested in the positive side of parenting. Although so much research is devoted to the costs of parenting, why then do so many people almost ubiquitously decide to become parents?” said study author Princeton Chee, a PhD candidate at the University of Rochester and member of the Le Lab.
“I’m not a parent myself, but I’m surrounded by a lot of parents that inspire how I think about my work and much of the time I get advice from parents themselves on if these are true emotions they feel and if not. A big part of this work was also inspired from my research advisor who had recently become a parent when I started this work which really paved the way for me to think about these ideas! Recently as well, the U.S. surgeon general released a public health advisory detailing the urgent need to better support parents mental health across the United States. I think this work stemmed partly from this, trying to see the good of parenting and how children can brighten people’s lives (rather than only make darker).”
To explore this, the research team conducted three studies using different methods: a cross-sectional survey, a longitudinal follow-up, and an experiment. They also performed an internal meta-analysis to summarize the findings across all three studies.
In the first study, 505 parents completed an online survey about their emotional experiences related to parenting. They rated how frequently they felt pride or awe in response to their child, and completed a set of questionnaires measuring life satisfaction, meaning in life, negative emotions, and psychological richness — a concept that captures the diversity and novelty of life experiences.
The results showed that parents who reported more pride felt more satisfied with life and less negative emotion, but pride was not linked to a stronger sense of meaning or psychological richness. Awe, on the other hand, was associated with higher life satisfaction, greater meaning, and a richer psychological life. These associations held even after accounting for child temperament and the gender or age of the parent or child. Interestingly, parents of younger children reported more frequent experiences of awe, but the benefits of awe and pride were present regardless of child age.
In the second study, 130 parents participated in a longitudinal project that followed them over the course of three months. The researchers measured pride, awe, life satisfaction, and meaning in life at multiple points. The goal was to see whether earlier experiences of pride or awe would predict changes in well-being later on.
The results echoed those of the first study. Parents who reported more pride at earlier time points tended to show increases in life satisfaction over time. Those who reported more awe showed increases in their sense of meaning in life. These effects remained even after accounting for the child’s temperament, suggesting that the emotional benefits weren’t just because the child was easy to care for.
To test whether pride and awe could cause changes in well-being, the researchers conducted a third study using a within-person experimental design. A total of 261 parents were recruited online and asked to recall and describe three different kinds of experiences they had with their child in the past month: one ordinary experience (control), one pride-inducing experience, and one awe-inducing experience. After each reflection, participants rated how satisfied, meaningful, and psychologically rich the experience felt, as well as how much negative emotion they experienced.
The results showed that both pride and awe increased feelings of life satisfaction and reduced negative emotion compared to the control condition. Awe also increased feelings of meaning and psychological richness more than either pride or the control condition. When comparing awe directly to pride, awe had a stronger effect on psychological richness, but the two emotions produced similar levels of satisfaction and meaning.
To better understand why these emotions had such positive effects, the researchers explored three potential psychological mechanisms. They found that both pride and awe were linked to stronger feelings of love and connection with one’s child, as well as a sense of self-transcendence — a feeling of being part of something larger than oneself. These two mechanisms helped explain how the emotions led to greater well-being. In addition, awe — but not pride — was associated with a feeling that time was slowing down, which may help parents become more present and appreciative of their experience.
“An interesting finding was the idea of awe and time perception,” Chee told PsyPost. “We found that parents who felt awe with their child felt like time actually slowed down. For instance, feeling awe from seeing your child take their first steps may have shifted a parent’s sense of time and almost make the scene feel like it played in slow motion. In this way, awe events can be easily “savored” or experienced in full and are especially powerful in enhancing well-being.”
The research team also explored the kinds of situations that commonly elicited pride and awe. Thematic analyses revealed that pride was often triggered by a child’s talent, personal growth, or resilience, such as overcoming a challenge. Awe, by contrast, was more commonly elicited by shared moments between parent and child, or by witnessing acts of love and kindness. These differences help explain why awe had broader psychological benefits, especially in terms of fostering meaning and variety in life.
An internal meta-analysis of the three studies confirmed the main results. Across all data, pride was consistently associated with greater life satisfaction and lower negative affect, while awe predicted not only life satisfaction and lower negative emotion but also higher meaning and psychological richness.
“Children are key sources of awe (feeling wonder or amazement, akin to saying ‘wow’ or ‘woah’ from something your child may do) and pride (feeling achieved or accomplished),” Chee said. “Parents feel these emotions with their children in all kinds of parenting events. These kinds of emotions can make parents feel happier, more satisfied, and more meaningful in their lives as parents, and can make parenting feel a bit less like a burden. Parental awe and pride are some of the unique ‘joys’ of parenting that make it much more rewarding.”
Despite the strengths of the research — including its use of diverse methodologies and preregistered hypotheses — there are some limitations. For example, the researchers did not examine the long-term impact of awe on psychological richness, which could be an important avenue for future study. They also noted that while awe’s benefits were largely robust, some of pride’s benefits may overlap with other positive emotions like joy. Future research could investigate how the emotional experiences of parents might influence children as well, creating a ripple effect within families.
“One kind of caveat for this work is that we don’t look at how these emotional experiences actually affect the child,” Chee said. “Although it is extremely important to look at parents’ own mental health, of course the development and well-being of the child is important too. It would be really cool to test how awe and pride can affect one’s child. Can awe moments ‘spread’ or ‘spillover’ to the child and other family members? What about shared awe moments in which both the parent and the child are feeling in awe of something (e.g., going to a science museum together or watching a solar eclipse together)?”
The study, “Feeling Pride and Awe in Parenthood: The Unique Emotional Rewards of Parenting on Well-Being,” was authored by Princeton X. Chee, Claire J. Shimshock, and Bonnie M. Le.
