Abstract
Longitudinal studies examining the role of response styles to positive affect (i.e., dampening and enhancing) for depressive symptoms have yielded inconsistent results. We examined concurrent and prospective relations of dampening and enhancing with depressive and anhedonic symptoms, and whether these relations depend on the frequency of uplifts. Early adolescents (N = 674, 51.6% girls, Mage = 12.7 years, range 11.3–14.9) completed questionnaires three times (one-year intervals). Dampening interacted with daily uplifts predicting concurrent depressive symptoms. Dampening was unrelated to depressive and anhedonic symptoms one year later. High dampening and low enhancing predicted relative increases in anhedonia over two years. Relationships did not differ for girls and boys. Therapeutic interventions designed to promote adaptive responding to positive affect may, thus, reduce anhedonia in adolescence.
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Notes
The enhancing subscale was originally called positive rumination. Positive rumination, which could be seen as a form of enhancing, is further named enhancing to avoid confusion with rumination in response to negative affect.
For the cross-sectional regression analyses, there were ten outliers for both the anhedonic and depressive symptoms analyses at Time 1; there were four and five outliers for respectively the anhedonic and depressive symptoms analyses at Time 2; and there were six and four outliers for respectively the anhedonic and depressive symptoms analyses at Time 3. For the Time 2 to Time 3 regression analyses there were six outliers when anhedonia was the outcome and eight outliers when depressive symptoms was the outcome. For the Time 1 to Time 3 regression analyses there were nine outliers when anhedonia was the outcome and 11 outliers when depressive symptoms was the outcome.
Higher dampening and lower enhancing were associated with higher concurrent depressive and anhedonic symptoms.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Sabrina Baeten, Eline Belmans, Jacintha Brand, Tessa Ceusters, Charlotte Ciers, Nandi De Preter, Sara De Wachter, Aurélie Gielen, Valentina Herman, Lowiese Houssouliez, Ine Loysch, Pauline Maes, Esther Michiels, Yentl Van der Wee, Lotte Verhulst, and Isabelle Yaramis for their help in the data collection.
Authors’ Contributions
S.N. participated in the conception and design, coordination, and data collection of the study, performed the statistical analyses, interpreted the data, and took the lead in writing up the manuscript. M.B. participated in the conception and design, coordination, and data collection of the study, and critically revised the manuscript. F.R. participated in the conception and design of the study and critically revised the manuscript. P.B. participated in the conception and design of the study, and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
This study was funded by the Research Foundation–Flanders (Grant G.0923.12 to Patricia Bijttebier and Ph.D. fellowship to Margot Bastin). Filip Raes is supported by KU Leuven Center for Excellence on Generalization Research (GRIP-TT; PF/10/005).
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Appendix
Appendix
DUHQA – Uplifts
Instruction: We would like to know how often certain events have happened in your life during the past year. Indicate for each event below HOW OFTEN it has happened during the past year. Circle the best fit answer.
Scale: Never, rarely, sometimes, often, very often
Items (English translation):
You were good in a class in school. |
Someone made your favorite dish. |
You won a medal. |
You won a board game. |
You received a nice text message, call, email or letter. |
You improved a personal record in a sport. |
You organized a nice activity. |
You made a new friend. |
You were good in your hobby. |
You improved a personal record in a computer game. |
You understood something difficult. |
You did something fun with your parents. |
You had fun with your pupils at school. |
You won a quiz. |
You found something you had lost. |
Your parents had a lot of time for you. |
You had good grades on a task, a test, or an exam. |
You won a game at the youth club. |
You got a compliment about how well you played a music instrument. |
Friends wanted to spend time with you. |
You got a present you wanted. |
You participated in a nice activity with friends (e.g., a movie, a party). |
Your parents supported you. |
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Nelis, S., Bastin, M., Raes, F. et al. When Do Good Things Lift You Up? Dampening, Enhancing, and Uplifts in Relation To Depressive and Anhedonic Symptoms in Early Adolescence. J Youth Adolescence 47, 1712–1730 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0880-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0880-z