TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring Anhedonia in Adolescents
T2 - A Psychometric Analysis
AU - Leventhal, Adam M.
AU - Unger, Jennifer B.
AU - Audrain-McGovern, Janet
AU - Sussman, Steve
AU - Volk, Heather E.
AU - Strong, David R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers R01-DA033296, K08-DA025041). The funding source was not involved in the preparation or submission of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 © 2015 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2015/9/3
Y1 - 2015/9/3
N2 - Anhedonia - the reduced capacity to experience pleasure - is a trait implicated in mental and physical health. Yet, psychometric data on anhedonia measures in adolescents are absent. We conducted an in-depth psychometric analysis of the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS; Snaith et al., 1995) - a self-report measure of anticipated pleasure response to 14 pleasant experiences - in adolescents. Adolescents (N = 585, M age = 14.5) completed the SHAPS and other paper-and-pencil surveys. Item response theory models were used to evaluate the psychometric performance of each SHAPS item. Correlations of the SHAPS with other personality and psychopathology measures were calculated to evaluate construct validity. Results showed that (a) certain items (e.g., reported pleasure from basic experiences like "seeing smiling faces" or "smelling flowers") provided more information about latent anhedonia than others; and (b) SHAPS scales exhibited construct-consistent convergent and discriminant validity (i.e., stronger correlations with low positive affect constructs, weaker correlations with negative affect). Reporting diminished pleasure from basic pleasant experiences accurately indicates adolescent anhedonia, which is important for future scale development and understanding the phenomenology of anhedonia in teens. These data support using the SHAPS for assessing anhedonia in epidemiological research and school-based universal prevention programming in general adolescent populations.
AB - Anhedonia - the reduced capacity to experience pleasure - is a trait implicated in mental and physical health. Yet, psychometric data on anhedonia measures in adolescents are absent. We conducted an in-depth psychometric analysis of the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS; Snaith et al., 1995) - a self-report measure of anticipated pleasure response to 14 pleasant experiences - in adolescents. Adolescents (N = 585, M age = 14.5) completed the SHAPS and other paper-and-pencil surveys. Item response theory models were used to evaluate the psychometric performance of each SHAPS item. Correlations of the SHAPS with other personality and psychopathology measures were calculated to evaluate construct validity. Results showed that (a) certain items (e.g., reported pleasure from basic experiences like "seeing smiling faces" or "smelling flowers") provided more information about latent anhedonia than others; and (b) SHAPS scales exhibited construct-consistent convergent and discriminant validity (i.e., stronger correlations with low positive affect constructs, weaker correlations with negative affect). Reporting diminished pleasure from basic pleasant experiences accurately indicates adolescent anhedonia, which is important for future scale development and understanding the phenomenology of anhedonia in teens. These data support using the SHAPS for assessing anhedonia in epidemiological research and school-based universal prevention programming in general adolescent populations.
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U2 - 10.1080/00223891.2015.1029072
DO - 10.1080/00223891.2015.1029072
M3 - Article
C2 - 25893676
AN - SCOPUS:84940434991
SN - 0022-3891
VL - 97
SP - 506
EP - 514
JO - Journal of Personality Assessment
JF - Journal of Personality Assessment
IS - 5
ER -