Thanks Corinne! 😄

P.S. you can "target" loadings to whatever value you want - I'm fairly certain it doesn't only have to be 0, at least in Mplus. Some packages in R may only allow targeting to 0.

These "targeted loadings" would then be biased towards 0 without being fixed. You can allow some loadings to be freely estimated. And this should work beyond just a measurement model! Mplus is probably your best bet here (that I know of). Hope this helps!

Hi David! Another option that seems accessible is Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) with a Target Rotation. Typically, in this approach, one would specify "targeted" loadings that are expected to be close to 0.

We hope this work will elevate the study of the role of altered neural reward processing in the experience and expression of early childhood depressive symptoms and highlight the importance of improving our developmental understanding of depressive disorders 🧠

Further, we extend this work by providing longitudinal data suggestive of a specific association between right caudate reward reactivity and future elevations in depressive symptom severity in children.

These findings conceptually replicate prior findings in the left amygdala and provide further evidence of links between depressive symptoms and caudate and mPFC reward reactivity, particularly in early childhood.

However, only right caudate reactivity to reward outcomes at baseline (negatively) associated with child depressive symptom severity one year later.

We found that left amygdala reactivity to salient outcomes (i.e., reward & loss vs. neutral) and right caudate and right mPFC reactivity to reward outcomes (i.e., reward vs. neutral) negatively associated with concurrent child depressive symptom severity.

During an fMRI scan, children played a simple guessing task intended to elicit responses to rewards and losses relative to a neutral condition. Caregivers reported on their own and their children's depressive symptom severity at baseline and one year later.

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