Data supporting 'Anhedonia and its subcomponent processes predict symptoms of clinical depression and loneliness in young people'

How to cite this Dataset

Prizeman, Katie (2024): Data supporting 'Anhedonia and its subcomponent processes predict symptoms of clinical depression and loneliness in young people'. University of Reading. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.000521

Description

Anhedonia is a core symptom of depression and is the reduced interest and pleasure in normally rewarding experiences. Anhedonia is considered a risk factor for future episodes of depression. Anhedonia is implicated in social withdrawal and, therefore, could lead to loneliness, another risk factor for depression. The aim of this study was to examine how anhedonia and its subcomponents relate to depression and loneliness symptoms in young people over time.

Participants included young people (N = 275) aged 17-25 years (M = 20.53, SD = 2.17), with a range of depression symptoms [Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ)] and were recruited from local schools and the student population via the School of Psychology research panel, online advertisements, and posters.

All participants completed the Anhedonia Scale for Adolescents (ASA), which has three subscales: 1) Enjoyment, Excitement, and Emotional Flattening (negatively framed); 2) Enthusiasm, Connection, and Purpose (positively framed); and 3) Effort, Motivation, and Drive (negatively framed), and the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Participants were reimbursed for their time and effort by being entered into a draw for a £50 Amazon voucher. Participants who consented to take part in the follow-up phase were contacted via email ~four months after the initial data collection. Of these participants, 172 provided follow-up data. To reimburse their effort at four four-month follow up, we entered participants into a further draw for one of five £50 Amazon vouchers. 103 participants could not be contacted for follow-up assessment, had discontinued the study, or provided incomplete data. We examined the relationships between anhedonia, loneliness, and depression with regression analyses.

Our results confirm the association between anhedonia symptoms and depression and loneliness. Our results also show that anhedonia measured with the ASA, a novel anhedonia questionnaire, predicts increases in depression over time and potentially loneliness over time too. This work confirms anhedonia as an important target for treatment interventions for depression. Further, knowing the specific anhedonia sub-components that predict increases in depression and loneliness can guide more tailored anhedonia treatment development.

Resource Type:

Dataset

Creators:

Prizeman, Katie