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

Introduction: 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.

Methods: 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.

Results: General and social anhedonia significantly increased over time, F =16.54, p < .001, η  = 0.02; F =27.31, p < .001, η  = 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).

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