Reward Processing Modulates the Association Between Trauma Exposure and Externalizing Psychopathology

Abstract

Childhood adversity is common and strongly associated with risk for psychopathology. Identifying factors that buffer children from experiencing psychopathology following adversity is critical for developing more effective intervention approaches. In the present study, we examined several behavioral metrics of reward processing reflecting global approach motivation for reward and the degree to which reward responses scaled with reward value (i.e., behavioral sensitivity to reward value) as potential moderators of the association of multiple dimensions of adversity—including trauma, caregiver neglect, and food insecurity—with depression and externalizing psychopathology in a sample of youths ages 8 to 16 (n = 132). Trauma exposure and externalizing problems were positively associated at low and moderate levels of reward reactivity, but this association became nonsignificant at high levels of reward reactivity. Our findings extend prior work by demonstrating that high behavioral sensitivity to reward value may buffer against externalizing problems following exposure to trauma.