Effort valuation and psychopathology in children and adults.
Psychol Med
; 49(16): 2801-2807, 2019 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30636648
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The Research Domain Criteria initiative was launched by the US National Institute of Mental Health to establish a multi-level framework for understanding psychological constructs relevant to human psychiatric disorders, and identified 'effort valuation/willingness to work' as a clinically useful construct worthy of further study. This construct encompasses the processes by which the cost(s) of obtaining an outcome are calculated, and the tendency to overcome response costs to obtain a reinforcer. The current study aims to examine effort valuation as a correlate of psychopathology in children and adults, and the moderating effects of sex on this relationship.METHODS:
Participants were 1215 children aged 6-12 and their parents (n = 1044). All participants completed the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task as a measure of effort expenditure. Child psychopathology was measured via the Child Behavior Checklist, while adult psychopathology was measured via the Adult Self Report. Additionally, the Social Adjustment Inventory for Children and Adolescents and Injury Behavior Checklist were used to examine child social impairments/problem behaviors.RESULTS:
In children, significant interactions between reward sensitivity and sex were observed in association with anxiety and thought problems, specifically at low reward sensitivity levels. In adults, main effects of effort expenditure were seen in drug and alcohol abuse, where higher effort was associated with higher degrees of abuse.CONCLUSIONS:
These results establish effort valuation as a relevant psychological construct for understanding psychopathology, but with different profiles of associated psychopathology across sex in children and adults.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Psychopathology
/
Reward
/
Mental Disorders
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
Psychol Med
Year:
2019
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: