Teens who gain pleasure from helping others could be less prone to depression, research shows

"(Medical Xpress)—Happiness derived from tasks that help others, like raising money for a charity, could be better for teen mental health than happiness derived from selfish activities, like eating chocolate or listening to music, according to research by Adriana Galvan of the University of California and her colleagues. Galvan and her team studied how teens' brains respond to these two different ways of finding happiness. They found that teens who are more likely to gain pleasure from helpful tasks are less likely to develop depressive symptoms than teens who are more likely to gain pleasure from selfish ones. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."