Multiple Levels of Analysis of the Positive Affect System: Relation to Depressive Symptoms in Parents and Children

<title>Abstract</title> <p> The positive affect (PA) system includes multiple features (e.g., hedonic, behavioral, motivational, and physiological) that are associated with depressive symptoms in youth and may serve as important mechanisms underlying depression. Examining associations between each feature with each other and with depressive symptoms can provide important information about the PA system and its link to mood disorders. Moreover, studying these relations in children who vary in risk of depression may provide information about vulnerabilities underlying depression. This study examined these questions in a sample of 8- to 10-year-old ( <italic>M</italic>  = 9.34; <italic>SD</italic>  = 0.85) children of mothers with and without a depression history. Correlational analyses revealed significant associations among some PA features; these associations were not moderated by mothers’ depression history. One PA feature, lower motivation, was associated with higher depressive symptoms in children, and this association was specific to offspring of mothers with a depression history. Regardless of mothers’ depression history, children’s higher depressive, but not anxiety, symptoms correlated with less adaptive mood repair. Overall, the mixed levels of association across the measures of PA provide only partial evidence of convergence of these features of the positive affect system, with a limited role of children’s current depression level and mothers’ depression history. </p>