Neural and self-reported reward responsiveness are associated with dispositional affectivity and emotion dysregulation in adolescents with evidence for convergent and incremental validity.

ABSTRACT

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by heightened reward sensitivity which, in turn, confers risk for pertinent negative outcomes, underscoring the need to better understand biological bases and behavioral correlates of reward responsiveness during this developmental phase. Our goals in the current study were to examine, in a sample of 43 typically developing adolescents (Mage  = 15.67 years; SD = 1.01; 32.6% boys), (1) evidence of convergent validity between neural and self-report reward responsiveness, (2) associations between neural reward responsiveness and self-report dispositional affectivity and emotion dysregulation (ED) and (3) evidence of incremental validity of self-report beyond neural reward responsiveness in predicting affectivity and ED. During electroencephalography (EEG), adolescents completed two experimental paradigms probing event-related potential (ERP) indices of reward anticipation and initial responsiveness to reward attainment. Following EEG, they completed self-report measures of reward responsiveness, affectivity, and ED. Findings indicated some evidence of convergent validity between enhanced ERP indices of reward anticipation and initial response to reward and greater reinforcement sensitivity; that ERP indices of both reward responsiveness aspects predicted lower negative affectivity and less ED; and evidence of incremental validity of self-report beyond neural reward responsiveness in predicting outcomes. Results underscore the utility of a multi-method framework in assessing adolescent reward responsiveness and support the relevance of reward responsiveness in explaining individual differences in dispositional affectivity and ED.