Interpersonal functioning in hoarding: an investigation of the link between hoarding symptoms and social support, social anhedonia, and social rewards

Background: One of the key areas of functional impairment in hoarding is interpersonal difficulties, with burgeoning evidence suggesting that these social difficulties are a component of the psychopathology observed in hoarding. The specific nature of these interpersonal difficulties, however, has yet to be fully elucidated. The aim of the current study was to investigate the contribution of social support and motivation to socialise, specifically social anhedonia and rewards from social stimuli, to hoarding symptom severity. Method: A total of 278 participants recruited via the crowd-sourcing website MTurk completed questionnaires assessing hoarding symptoms, social support, social anhedonia, and response to social rewards. Results: Results for social reward processing indicated that hoarding symptoms were associated with finding both negative and positive behaviours towards others more rewarding. Social anhedonia also positively predicted hoarding symptoms. Furthermore, social integration, a component of social support, was inversely associated with hoarding symptoms. These associations remained significant when controlling for depressive symptoms. These results suggest that hoarding may be linked to decreased social support and reduced social motivation, particularly, dysregulated reward processing of social stimuli, and greater social anhedonia. Limitations: Limitations of the current study include utilising an unselected sample, use of self-report measures, and analyses being correlational in nature. Future research utilising longitudinal or experimental research methods in a clinical population may further delineate the clinical conceptualisation of social difficulties in hoarding disorder. Conclusions: Current findings may inform interpersonal conceptualisations for hoarding disorder and suggest additional treatment avenues.