Associations between autobiographical characteristics of past and future events, anhedonia and anticipatory pleasure: a cross-sectional study in a community sample of adolescents

Impairments in autobiographical characteristics of Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) and Autobiographical (AM), such as reduced specificity, level of detail, and mental imagery, are associated with stress-related mental health problems in adults, including depression. The current study aims to identify which cognitive and emotional autobiographical characteristics, including objectively-rated level of specificity and autobiographical detail, predict unique variance in anhedonia and anticipatory pleasure in adolescents. Both are core symptoms of depression characterised by low positive affective experiences. By doing so, we aimed to identify modifiable cognitive processes that may improve the resilience of adolescents at an early stage before they develop psychopathology. An adolescent community sample (N = 149, M age = 13.21; SD = 1.04) completed self-report scales assessing anhedonia, resilience, and depressive symptoms, and the Episodic Future Thinking Test and Autobiographical Memory Test to measure EFT and AM variables. With respect to anhedonia, anticipated pleasure (EFT) accounted for unique variance. Regarding anticipatory pleasure, the findings consistently indicated that anticipated pleasure, mental imagery and level of detail (EFT) each served as unique predictors. Lower anhedonia levels fully mediated the positive relation between anticipated pleasure and resilience. Although findings should be interpreted considering the study limitations, clinical implications are discussed.