Does Prospective Mental Imagery Predict Symptoms of Negative Affect and Anhedonia in Young People?

Taryn Hutchinson, Laura Riddleston, Iris Lavi, Victoria Pile, Alan Meehan, Meenakshi Shukla, Jennifer Lau

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Adolescent depression is associated with unhelpful emotional mental imagery. Here, we investigated whether vividness of negative and positive prospective mental imagery predict negative affect and anhedonia in adolescents. 111 people from Israel completed measures of prospective mental imagery, negative affect, and anhedonia at two time-points approximately three months apart. Using three cross-lagged panel models, we showed once ‘concurrent’ (across-variable, within-time) and ‘stability’ paths (across-time, within-variable) were estimated, there were no significant cross-lag paths between: i) T1 prospective negative mental imagery and T8 negative affect (i.e. increased vividness of negative future imagery at Time 1 did not predict increased negative affect at Time 8); ii) T1 prospective positive mental imagery and T8 negative affect (i.e. reduced vividness of positive future imagery at Time 1 did not predict increased negative affect at Time 8); and iii) T1 prospective positive mental imagery and T8 anhedonia (i.e. reduced vividness of positive future imagery at Time 1 did not predict increased anhedonia at Time 8). Given high levels of attrition, future research should aim to explore these associations in a larger, more diverse population, as such data could inform on whether modifying earlier prospective mental imagery may influence later time/context-specific effects of prospective mental imagery on negative affect and anhedonia.

Original languageEnglish
JournalChild Psychiatry and Human Development
Early online date5 May 2024
DOIs
StateE-pub ahead of print - 5 May 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Keywords

  • Adolescence
  • Anhedonia
  • Depression
  • Mental imagery
  • Negative Affect

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Does Prospective Mental Imagery Predict Symptoms of Negative Affect and Anhedonia in Young People?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this