Depression, anxiety, and reduced facilitation in adolescents’ personal goal systems

Abstract

The study investigated whether symptoms of anxiety and depression are independently associated with reduced goal facilitation in a school sample of adolescents (N = 119). Participants listed their goals and rated the extent to which they facilitated or inhibited each other. Anxious and depressive symptoms were both associated with reduced levels of goal facilitation, although regression analyses revealed that depressive symptoms but not anxious symptoms were independently associated with reduced levels of goal facilitation. Similarly, ratings of distress and repetitive thinking associated with participants’ most conflicting goals were independently associated with depressive symptoms but not anxious symptoms. There was no association between the number of goals listed and anxious or depressive symptoms. Results suggest that depression, but not anxiety, is independently associated with reduced coherence in personal goal systems and a negative preoccupation with conflicting goals.