The Behavioral Approach System/Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS/BAS): A State or Trait? (2015)

Undergraduates: Chloe Paterson, Tate Halverson, Mian-Li Ong

Faculty Advisor: Eric Youngstrom
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Behavioral Activation System (BAS) dysregulation may be a vulnerability for mania and depression (Meyer, Johnson, & Winters, 2001, Alloy et al., 2009). It is not certain whether this is more of a trait or mood state. We hypothesized that after controlling for demographics and bipolar diagnosis (BD), current mood would incrementally predict caregiver-reported BIS and BAS scores, but BD status would not show significant effects after controlling current mood.

795 outpatient youths (age 5¿¿¿17; 153 BD) and caregivers completed diagnostic interviews, current symptom ratings and BIS/BAS scales. Regressions assessed the relationship between youth BD diagnosis controlling for effects of age, race, gender and current mood; and current mood, controlling for age, race, gender and BD.

Current mood predicted both BAS and BIS scores (BAS: F(2,788)=10.30, ¿¿¿R2=.02; BIS: F(2,788)=5.38, ¿¿¿R2=.02; ps<.0005). Both caregiver-reported KMRS and KDRS significantly predicted BAS scores (KMRS: t(788) = 3.98, p < .0005; KDRS: t(788) = 2.74, p < .01), but only KDRS predicted BIS scores (KDRS: t(788) = 3.98, p<.0005). BD did not predict BAS nor BIS scores after controlling for current mood. Results suggest that BAS appears more state- than trait-dependent in youth with BD, and that manic symptoms share more variance with BAS than depressive symptoms. Limitations include the sample not extending past age 17 and only having a single timepoint of data.