Examining How Components of Devaluing and Fearing Happiness Connect at Different Levels of Depression: A Moderated Network Analysis

Meta-analytic findings have demonstrated that depressed individuals exhibit an attentional bias away from positive stimuli. Depressed individuals may avoid positivity due to previous associations with negative outcomes and thus exhibit fearful responses when presented with positivity. Fear of happiness (FHS) is a construct that examines the negative emotions associated with happiness and has been found to be greater in depressed individuals than non-depressed individuals. How the major components of FHS differentially relate in depressed versus non-depressed individuals is currently unknown. Thus, we examined the interactive components of FHS at different levels of depressive symptoms via a Moderated Network Model. Participants (N=966) were undergraduate students recruited from the psychology subject pool at a large southern university. Four models were conditioned to examine the network of individual FHS items with depressive symptoms as the moderator, measured by the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Self-Report: (1) -1SD (no depressive symptoms), (2) mean (mild range), (3) +1SD (moderate range), and (4) +2SD (severe range). As depressive symptoms increased, items representing avoidance of positivity became more strongly connected. Additionally, a progressive change emerged such that connections that were positively related in individuals with no depressive symptoms were negatively related in individuals with elevated depressive symptoms (or vice versa). These findings provide further evidence that individuals who experience greater depressive symptoms may devalue positivity, demonstrating an opposite pattern seen among those without depressive symptoms.