JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Participating in leisure and social activities can alleviate depression symptoms, yet effective strategies to enhance enjoyment and maintain long-term engagement remain scarce. Gaining insight into the reward sub-components that influence daily experiences and drive behaviour could uncover novel targets for intervention.

Objective:

This study examines the role of anticipatory pleasure and motivation in predicting enjoyment and engagement in leisure activities and socializing among young people, and how these relationships are moderated by depression severity, using intensive longitudinal ecological momentary assessments.

Methods:

Participants (N=80, mean age = 20 years) used the Psymate2 smartphone app to report mood, enjoyment, current and anticipated activities, and social company seven times daily for six days. Activity categories were relaxation, exercise, other leisure, work/school, studying, chores, shopping, hygiene, eating/drinking, traveling and company categories were partner, friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances, strangers, nobody. Anticipation (anticipatory pleasure, expectation) and motivation (interest, preference) for upcoming activities were rated on Likert scales. Participants were grouped by depression severity: high (HD, MFQ ≥ 27, N=48), moderate (MD, MFQ 16–27, N=16), and low (C, MFQ ≤ 16, N=22). A total of 2,316 assessments met inclusion criteria.

Results:

Leisure activities (relaxation, exercise, other leisure) and being in social company (partner, friends, family) were rated most enjoyable across all groups. Higher depression symptoms were associated with reduced enjoyment of studying (β=-0.03, P=.005), eating/drinking (β=-0.02, P=.02), and other leisure activities (β=-0.02, P=.018), as well as lower engagement in work/school (β=-0.26, P=.016) and hygiene (β=-0.08, P=.03), and increased inactivity (β=0.17, P=.026). Time-lagged multilevel analyses showed that anticipatory pleasure predicted greater enjoyment across all activities (β=0.12, P<0.001) and social contexts (β=0.33, P<0.001), with consistent effects in controls and the high-depression group. However, expectation negatively predicted enjoyment in the whole sample (β=-0.006, P=.001) and high-depression group (β=-0.008, P=.001). Anticipatory pleasure and preference predicted leisure engagement in the whole sample (β=0.19, P=.003; β=0.11, P<0.001) and controls (β=0.43, P=.005; β=0.17, P=.048). In the high-depression group, anticipatory pleasure only predicted leisure when predictors and outcomes were matched within the same event (β=0.22, P=.001). Anticipatory pleasure predicted social engagement in the whole sample (β=0.095, P=.047) and controls (β=0.34, P=.003), but not in those with moderate or high depression.

Conclusions:

These findings underscore the role of anticipatory pleasure in driving real-life engagement and highlight reward-processing impairments in depression. Interventions targeting anticipation and motivation may enhance sustained participation in rewarding activities, offering a novel approach to improving well-being in individuals with depression. Clinical Trial: N/A