Academic Journal
Positive and negative future thinking fluency: A transdiagnostic meta-analysis of associations with psychopathology and hopelessness.
| Τίτλος: | Positive and negative future thinking fluency: A transdiagnostic meta-analysis of associations with psychopathology and hopelessness. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Pillny M; Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement Science, Universität Hamburg, Germany; Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. Electronic address: matthias.pillny@uni-hamburg.de., Edwards CJ; Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK; South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK., MacLeod A; Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, UK., Hallford D; School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. |
| Πηγή: | Journal of affective disorders [J Affect Disord] 2026 Oct 01; Vol. 410, pp. 121962. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 May 14. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article; Meta-Analysis; Systematic Review |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 7906073 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1573-2517 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 01650327 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Affect Disord Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Original Publication: Amsterdam, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press. |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Mental Disorders*/psychology , Hope* , Thinking*, Humans |
| Περίληψη: | Background: Disrupted future-directed thinking such as hopelessness is recognised as a transdiagnostic process in psychopathology. Hopelessness is marked by negative future expectations and a strong link to suicidality. The Future Fluency Task (FFT) has been widely used as an idiographic, performance-based index of generative capacity for positive and negative future thinking. However, evidence for transdiagnostic and disorder-specific patterns of future thinking and their association with hopelessness remains fragmented. This preregistered meta-analysis aimed to synthesize the evidence of positive and negative future thinking patterns across mental health conditions and their associations with hopelessness. Methods: Systematic searches were done using PubMed, PsycINFO, and MEDLINE, to identify studies comparing clinical groups with controls on positive/negative FFT fluency and/or reporting associations with hopelessness. Random-effects three-level models tested group differences in future thinking fluency and associations with hopelessness. Results: Clinical groups (N = 1726) showed significantly reduced positive FFT fluency compared with controls (k = 23; g = -0.88), whereas negative FFT fluency did not differ (k = 22; g = 0.25). Subgroup analyses indicated reduced positive FFT fluency across major depression, eating disorders, PTSD, schizophrenia, and suicidal samples, with no difference in anxiety disorders, and heterogeneous patterns for negative FFT fluency. Hopelessness was associated with lower positive FFT fluency (k = 18; r = -0.19) and higher negative FFT fluency (k = 12; r = 0.15). Conclusions: This meta-analysis provides the first transdiagnostic synthesis of FFT performance, showing a robust transdiagnostic reduction in positive future thinking fluency alongside disorder-specific patterns in negative fluency. (Copyright © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest We have no conflicts of interest to disclose. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Episodic future thinking; Memory; Mental imagery; Prospection; Transdiagnostic |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260515 Date Completed: 20260605 Latest Revision: 20260608 |
| Update Code: | 20260609 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jad.2026.121962 |
| PMID: | 42140319 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1573-2517 |
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| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jad.2026.121962 |