Reward motives are differentially related to depression, anxiety, and ADHD symptoms in middle childhood
Bibliographic Data
Deviations in reward anticipation and response are associated with internalizing and externalizing disorders. However, relationships between different types of reward motivations and psychopathology have been less explored. We examine how preferences for absolute (gaining points) and relative (gaining more points than others) rewards relate to psychopathological symptoms in middle childhood. A community sample ( N = 133 6- to 9-year-olds) was assessed for child characteristics (gender, age, resource deprivation) and psychiatric symptoms, Child Behavior Checklist dimensional subscales: depression, anxiety, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Conduct Disorder (CD). Children completed a behavioral economic game, selecting equal or unequal point splits for themselves and another player. Each round offered one of four unequal point splits: absolute rewards (more overall points), relative rewards (more points than another player), both, or neither. Multilevel binary logistic regressions found that depression was associated with an increased preference for gaining more points than the other player ( t = 1.986, p = .047), anxiety was associated with a reduced preference for maximizing points ( t = −3.259, p = .001) and gaining more points than the other player ( t = −3.148, p = .002), and ADHD was associated with an increased preference for maximizing points regardless of what the other player received ( t = 2.392, p = .017). Our results suggest depression, anxiety, and ADHD may differentially influence the types of rewards children find motivating and choose to pursue. Future work should explore the impact of integrating these preferences into treatment to reduce pediatric psychopathology
Anxiety · CBCL · Child psychopathology · Conduct disorder · Preference · Psychopathology · Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED)
Prevalence and Development of Psychiatric Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence
Behavioral activation treatment for depression
Generalized Collinearity Diagnostics
Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)
The developmental roots of fairness: infants’ reactions to equal and unequal distributions of resources
Do Infants Have a Sense of Fairness?
Randomized trial of behavioral activation, cognitive therapy, and antidepressant medication in the acute treatment of adults with major depression.
Making Neighborhood-Disadvantage Metrics Accessible — The Neighborhood Atlas
Relational Aggression, Gender, and Social-Psychological Adjustment
Bullying Is Power
The Risk for Early-Adulthood Anxiety and Depressive Disorders in Adolescents With Anxiety and Depressive Disorders
High economic inequality leads higher-income individuals to be less generous
Children's altruistic behavior in the dictator game
Relationships between the frequency of social comparisons and self-concept clarity, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety, and depression
Prior Juvenile Diagnoses in Adults With Mental Disorder
A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior
Age at onset of mental disorders worldwide
Social Class and Prosocial Behavior
When Child Development Meets Economic Game Theory
Sensation Seeking and Symptoms of Disruptive Disorder
Relation of Depression and Anxiety to Self‐ and Peer‐Reported Relational Aggression
Individual differences in social comparison
Having less, giving more
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |