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Negative affect interference and fear of happiness are independently associated with depressive symptoms
Author(s) -
Jordan D. Gage,
Collins Amanda C.,
Dunaway Matthew G.,
Kilgore Jenna,
Winer E. Samuel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.23066
Subject(s) - psychology , happiness , multilevel model , affect (linguistics) , depressive symptoms , clinical psychology , depression (economics) , association (psychology) , developmental psychology , psychiatry , anxiety , social psychology , psychotherapist , communication , machine learning , computer science , economics , macroeconomics
Objectives Reward devaluation theory (RDT) posits that some depressed individuals avoid positivity due to its previous association with negative outcomes. Behavioral indicators of avoidance of reward support RDT, but self‐report indicators have yet to be examined discriminantly. Two candidate self‐report measures were examined in relation to depression: negative affect interference (NAI), or the experience of negative affect in response to positivity, and fear of happiness, a fear of prospective happiness. Method Participants completed measures assessing NAI, fear of happiness scale, and depression online via Amazon's Mechanical Turk at three time points ( N = 375). Multilevel modeling examined the relationship between NAI, fear of happiness, and depressive symptoms longitudinally. Results NAI and fear of happiness were both positively associated with depressive symptoms. They both uniquely predicted depressive symptoms when included within the same model. Conclusions These findings suggest that different conceptualizations of positivity avoidance are uniquely associated with depressive symptoms.