Social and general anhedonia in adolescents: Stability and associations with other symptoms

Recent works have developed two self-report measures of general and social anhedonia for adolescents. Little is known about the relative stability of these constructs and their associations with psychopathological symptoms over time.

A total of 694 Chinese adolescents aged 14-16 years (74.6% girls) completed measures of anhedonia at two time points 1 year apart. General anhedonia was assessed using the Snaith Hamilton Pleasure Scale while social anhedonia was assessed using the Adolescent Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale.

General and social anhedonia significantly increased over time, F_{(1, 693)} =16.54, p < .001, η²  = 0.02; F_{(1, 693)} =27.31, p < .001, η²  = 0.04. Greater depression (b = -0.10, p = .006), suicidal ideation (b = -0.55, p < .001), generalized anxiety (b = -0.28, p = .012), social anxiety (b = -0.28, p = .002), and interpersonal stressful events (b = -0.20, p = .035) were associated with greater social anhedonia. Suicidal ideation was associated with general anhedonia (b = 0.29, p = .004). Higher positive schizotypal personality was associated with less general and social anhedonia (b = -0.18, b = 0.16, all p < .001) whereas higher negative schizotypal personality was associated with greater general and social anhedonia (b = 0.34, b = -0.58, all p < .001).

This finding suggests that anhedonia is an increasing trend during adolescence. The relationship between anhedonia and psychopathology was specific to social anhedonia.