1. ABOUT THE DATASET ------------ Title: Data supporting ´Anhedonia and its subcomponent processes predict symptoms of clinical depression and loneliness in young people´ Creator(s): Katie Prizeman (katiediab@gmail.com), ORCiD https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3960-6467 Organisation(s): Department of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom Rights-holder(s): Katie Prizeman Publication Year: 2024 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. Cite as: 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 Related publication: • Title: Anhedonia and its subcomponent processes predict symptoms of clinical depression and loneliness in young people • Corresponding author: Katie Prizeman • Co-authors: Ciara McCabe • Journal: TBD • Current status: Manuscript to be submitted to journal • Expected date of publication: N/A Contact: Katie Prizeman katiediab@gmail.com Acknowledgements: I would like to thank all participants who took part in helping collect some of the data for this study. 2. TERMS OF USE ------------ Copyright 2024 Katie Prizeman. This dataset is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 3. PROJECT AND FUNDING INFORMATION ------------ Title: Mixed methods approach exploring the effect of mental health stigma on self-disclosure, loneliness, and social isolation in young people with depressive symptoms Dates: Jan 2023 – May 2023 This project received no other funding. This dataset was not created in the course of a funded project. 4. CONTENTS ------------ File listing 1. Data_File_Prizeman_2024 Includes 1 excel file made up of 2 excel sheets: • Sheet 1 titled: Baseline T1 data (N=275). Includes information about 275 participants socio-demographic characteristic information [i.e., participant number, age, country, education level, gender, and ethnicity,], and participates raw questionnaire data including the following scales: ASA, MFQ, and UCLA. • Sheet 2 titled: Follow-up T2 (N=172). Includes 172 matched ID participants numbers (matched to baseline/T1), and participates raw questionnaire data including the following scales: ASA, MFQ, and UCLA at four month follow-up. 5. METHODS ----------- 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)] (Costello & Angold, 1988) were recruited from local schools and the student population via the School of Psychology research panel, online advertisements, and posters. 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 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. All procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (REC reference number: 2022-072-NW) of the Psychology Department at the University of Reading and written informed consent was obtained. Participants received a debrief form, which included contact details for the Samaritans and advised anyone concerned about their mood to contact their GP.