Summary: A new study reveals that feelings of pride and awe toward one’s children significantly enhance parental well-being, life satisfaction, and the parent-child bond. Conducted with nearly 900 parents, the research found that while both emotions were beneficial, awe had a stronger impact on psychological richness and meaning.
Awe connects parents to something larger than themselves, offering a sense of wonder that slows time and deepens emotional connection. These findings suggest that everyday moments with children—not just major milestones—can offer profound emotional rewards that help buffer the mental health challenges of parenting.
Key Facts:
- Emotional Impact: Awe improves well-being more holistically than pride by enhancing life meaning and emotional richness.
- Time Perception: Awe can make time feel slower, helping parents immerse fully in special moments.
- Accessibility: Awe doesn’t require rare events—it can arise from everyday interactions like outings or shared joy.
Source: Society for Personality and Social Psychology
New research from the University of Rochester suggests that experiencing feelings of pride and awe toward one’s children can significantly enhance parental well-being.
The study, which will be published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, found that these positive emotions contribute to greater life satisfaction and stronger parent-child bonds.
The research team, led by Princeton Chee, conducted a series of studies involving nearly 900 parents to examine how parental pride and awe affect various aspects of well-being.
“Parental pride and awe are common and beneficial feelings parents can have with their children,” explains Chee.
“Parents may feel proud when their child does something they worked hard to succeed in and accomplish. They may feel awe when their child does something amazing or completely unexpected that make them feel like saying ‘woah’ or ‘wow.'”
While both emotions proved beneficial, the research showed that awe had more profound effects on overall well-being.
“We find that awe can actually strengthen parental well-being more broadly and holistically, compared to pride, making parents lives feel happier, more meaningful, and richer in experiences,” Chee notes.
The study found that awe connects parents to something larger than themselves, such as the parent-child relationship or the concept of parenthood itself, while pride tends to focus more on personal ego and accomplishments.
This distinction helps explain why awe showed stronger associations with purpose, meaning, and psychological richness in parents’ lives.
Particularly noteworthy was the finding that awe can alter parents’ perception of time. “Awe in particular can help parents fully immerse themselves by making time feel like it’s slowing down during extraordinary moments,” says Chee.
The research appears especially relevant amid growing concerns about parental mental health.
“Parents everywhere are struggling with mental health and well-being, with even the US surgeon general calling for an urgent need to better support parents,” Chee points out.
“Our research finds that one way in which parenthood can be rewarding, rather than detrimental, is through feeling pride and especially awe with one’s child.”
Contrary to popular belief, experiencing parental awe doesn’t require rare or exceptional circumstances.
“Awe may be easier to find and cultivate than you might think,” Chee explains.
“It doesn’t have to be only once in a lifetime, extraordinary experiences in which parents feel awe. These certainly are rewarding moments that elicit awe, but awe, along with its many rewards, can also be cultivated through things as simple as weekend outings and quality time spent with one’s child.”
The researchers emphasize that acknowledging these positive emotional experiences doesn’t diminish the challenges of parenthood. Rather, the findings suggest that cultivating and savoring moments of pride and awe can help parents find greater joy, meaning, and richness in the parenting experience.
About this parenting and psychology research news
Author: Stephen Waldron
Source: Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Contact: Stephen Waldron – Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Closed access.
“Feeling Pride and Awe in Parenthood: The Unique Emotional Rewards of Parenting on Well-Being” by Princeton Chee et al. Social Psychological and Personality Science
Abstract
Feeling Pride and Awe in Parenthood: The Unique Emotional Rewards of Parenting on Well-Being
Parenthood is challenging but fulfilling. We examined how parental pride and awe may enhance various aspects of well-being across cross-sectional (N = 505), longitudinal (N = 130), and experimental (N = 261) studies, along with an internal meta-analysis.
Thematic analyses suggested similar yet unique frequencies and underpinnings of pride (child growth, talent, resilience, and good behavior) and awe (child love/kindness, growth, talent, and shared moments).
Beyond this, we found that pride predicted greater pleasure (i.e., high satisfaction and low negative affect), and awe predicted greater pleasure, purpose (i.e., meaning), and variety (i.e., psychological richness).
We found that strengthened relationship quality with a child, self-transcendence (for pride and awe), and slowed time perception (for awe) served as mechanisms for these effects.
Furthermore, these rewards were consistent across parent and child characteristics and could not be explained by child temperament or other positive emotions.
These findings illuminate how pride and awe can make parenting bright, meaningful, and rich.
