Long-term test–retest reliability of delayed reward discounting in adolescents

Abstract

Delay discounting (DD), a decline in subjective value of a reward with increasing temporal delay in receipt of that reward, is an established behavioral indicator of impulsivity. Preference for smaller-immediate over larger-delayed rewards, has been implicated in the basic neurobehavioral mechanisms of risk for addictive disorders and related externalizing psychopathology. Establishing long-term stability of DD in adolescence is a necessary step towards its validation as an intermediate phenotype, or marker of risk, in neurobiological and genetic studies. Previous studies have demonstrated moderate to high test–retest reliability of DD, however, these studies utilized adult samples and examined relatively short retest intervals. Due to continuing development of brain and behavior, stability of temporal discounting behavior in adolescence may differ from that in adulthood. Here, two cohorts of adolescents aged 16 (n = 126) and 18 (n = 111) were administered a computerized test of DD and re-tested two years later. DD rate showed a modest but significant decrease with age, suggesting a reduction in overall impulsivity from middle to late adolescence. Significant test–retest correlations were observed in both cohorts (.67 and .76, respectively, p < .001) indicating longitudinal stability of individual differences in decision-making behavior during middle and late adolescence.

Delay discounting and parental monitoring in adolescents with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes

“…The ln k of youth in this study (M ln k = −4.56, see Table 1) was similar to average discounting rates found in other samples of adolescents (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Stanger et al, 2012). In addition, research on this task in adolescents has shown good test-retest reliability during both middle and late adolescence (Anokhin, Golosheykin, & Mulligan, 2015). …”

Role of Reward Sensitivity and Processing in Major Depressive and Bipolar Spectrum Disorders

“…Adolescents, relative to children and adults, demonstrate heightened responsivity to rewards across multiple measurement strategies including self-reports of BAS (Pagliaccio et al, in press), reward pursuit behaviors (Anokhin, Golosheykin, & Mulligan, 2015), and neural indices of reward processing (e.g., Forbes, Ryan, et al, 2010). This work has largely relied on cross-sectional studies; thus, additional longitudinal work is needed to further evaluate these trends.…”

Risk-Taking, Delay Discounting, and Time Perspective in Adolescent Gamblers: An Experimental Study

“…This is probably due to individual difference factors (such as future orientation and impulsivity), cognitive functioning (such as the ability to imagine and experience pleasure or pain in advance of future events), and the maturation of brain system during adolescence (Banich et al 2013). A recent study by Anokhin, Golosheykin, and Mulligan (2015) demonstrated that, in spite of the presence of systematic age-related changes from age 16 to 18 years, individual differences in delay discounting showed considerable stability over this period.…”