Examining the unique and interactive impacts of anhedonia and fear of happiness on depressive symptoms

Abstract

Background: Depression is often found to be treatment resistant. Examining the disorder as a homogenous entity could be hindering progress. Research focusing on unique pathways toward the development of depression could better inform treatment. Thus, the goal of this present study is to assess the unique and interactive relationships of fear of happiness (FOH) and anhedonia on depression. Methods: Participants (N = 379) completed self-report measures of anhedonia, FOH, and depressive symptoms via Amazon Mechanical Turk. We investigated whether FOH moderated the relationship between anhedonia and depressive symptoms via model 1 in PROCESS. Results: FOH did not significantly moderate the relationship between anhedonia and depressive symptoms. However, FOH and anhedonia both uniquely predicted depression, when controlling for the other. Limitations: This was a non-clinical community sample demonstrating mild depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Both pathways of FOH and anhedonia should be properly evaluated and targeted in the assessment and treatment of depressive symptoms.

Keywords

• Anhedonia
• Fear of happiness
• Depression
• Reward devaluation theory