Episodic Future Thinking, Anticipatory Pleasure, and Executive Functioning in Adolescents with Major Depression

Resumen

While impairments in future thinking are well established in adults with psychiatric disorders, this is not so much the case for adolescents, among whom memory specificity, but not future thinking, impairments have been observed. This study examined autobiographical thinking and its correlation with a range of cognitive functioning tasks among 57 adolescents (M age = 15.8, SD = 1.1, range 13-17) with or with current major depressive disorder. Significant differences between the groups were found for memory specificity and anticipatory pleasure, and a trend, but not significant, difference for future thinking specificity. Some differences in cognitive functioning, particularly executive functioning, were found, which correlated with specificity. Controlling for cognitive functioning scores did not substantially change any observed group differences on specificity or anticipatory pleasure. These findings suggest that adolescents experiencing a major depressive episode may display similar, but less pronounced, impairments in future thinking than in adults. Further, executive functioning abilities correlated with specificity, but did not clearly account for the effects of depression on specificity.

Áreas y palabras clave

Cómo citar (APA 7)

Lakshmi, P., Kishore, M. T., Roopesh, B. N., Jacob, P., Rusanov, D., & Hallford, D. J. (2023). Episodic Future Thinking, Anticipatory Pleasure, and Executive Functioning in Adolescents with Major Depression. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/6p873