Parents’ hedonic, eudaimonic, and extrinsic motives for happiness: associations with parenting behaviors

Although happiness motives are known to influence personal well-being, their relevance to parenting behaviors, which are crucial for child well-being, remains understudied. This study examined how parents’ hedonic (e.g., seeking fun), eudaimonic (e.g., seeking meaning), and extrinsic motives (e.g., seeking wealth) relate to parenting behaviors in a cross-sectional study involving parents from China (Study 1) and in a two-wave longitudinal study with parents from the United States (Study 2). The findings show that eudaimonic motives relate to higher levels of autonomy support/behavioral control and lower levels of psychological control/inconsistent parenting, whereas extrinsic motives relate to lower levels of autonomy support and higher levels of psychological control. Furthermore, we observed inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between hedonic motives and parenting behaviors across the two studies. These findings highlight the importance of extending happiness motive research beyond intrapersonal domains into interpersonal contexts, thereby helping identify the relevance of different happiness motives to others’ well-being.