ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Alcohol misuse in college students represents a significant public health problem. Toward improving the understanding of determinants of collegiate alcohol misuse, the current study examined several dimensions of impulsivity in relation to hazardous drinking in college students. METHOD: A one-way, two-group, cross-sectional design was used to compare hazardous drinkers (HZD) with social drinkers (SOC). HZD drinkers were required to score 6 or more on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT); SOC drinkers were required to score 1-5 on the AUDIT. The sample comprised 93 participants (56% HZD; 76% male) who were recruited from a medium-sized public university. Participants were assessed under neutral conditions using the Eysenck Impulsivity Questionnaire (EIQ), Delay Discounting Task (DDT), and Stanford Time Perspective Inventory (STPI). RESULTS: Consistent with predictions, HZD participants exhibited significantly greater impulsivity on the EIQ-Impulsivity subscale (p < .001), the STPI-Present Hedonism subscale (p < .01), and the STPIFuture subscale (p < .01); however, no differences were evident on the DDT (p > .40). The HZD group also scored marginally higher than the SOC group on the EIQ-Venturesomeness subscale (p < .10). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that greater impulsivity is associated with alcohol misuse in college students, most prominently in the area of propensity toward risk-taking and nonplanning (EIQ-Impulsivity subscale). The correspondence between these findings and previous studies, methodological considerations, and the need for prospective studies on impulsivity and alcohol misuse in college students are discussed.
Subject(s)
Alcohol Drinking/psychology , Impulsive Behavior/psychology , Students , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , UniversitiesABSTRACT
Study I represents a follow-up to a recently published study dealing with the initial development of the Sexual Abuse Questionnaire (SAQ). The SAQwas designed to be used to identify individuals experiencing psychological distress resulting from a history of childhood sexual abuse. Using a new data set (N = 2,806), this study utilized item analyses, exploratory factor analyses, and Receiver Operating Characteristics Curves to replicate and expand upon the initial psychometric properties of the SAQ, and to examine the sensitivity of the SAQ to other abuse categories. Findings from Study I indicated that the SAQ was sensitive to other abuse categories and in need of revision. Study II, using a new data set (N = 1,454), provided the initial psychometric evaluation of the newly constructed Binghamton Childhood Abuse Screen (BCAS).
Subject(s)
Child Abuse, Sexual/diagnosis , Self-Assessment , Surveys and Questionnaires/standards , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Personality Inventory/standards , Psychometrics , ROC Curve , Reproducibility of Results , Research Design , Sensitivity and Specificity , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/diagnosis , Students/psychology , United StatesABSTRACT
The present study assessed the divergent validity of several self-report and objective behavioral measures for assessing pathological gambling using three samples divided by South Oaks Gambling Scale score [Lesieur, & Blume (1987). American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 1184-1188]: pathological gamblers, potential pathological gamblers, and non-pathological gamblers. Self-report measures included the Gamblers' Beliefs Questionnaire [GBQ; Steenbergh, Meyers, May, & Whelan (2002). Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 16, 143-149], the Gambling Passion Scale [GPS; Rousseau, Vallerand, Ratelle, Mageau, & Provencher, (2002). Journal of Gambling Studies, 18, 45-66], the Eysenck Impulsivity Questionnaire [EIQ; Eysenck, & Eysenck (1978). Psychological Reports, 43, 1247-1255], and the Stanford Time Perspective Inventory [STPI; Zimbardo, & Boyd (1999). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1271-1288]. Behavioral tasks included the delay discounting task [Madden, Petry, Badger, & Bickel (1997). Experimental & Clinical Psychopharmacology, 5, 256-263] and the Future Time Perspectives [FTP; Wallace (1956). Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 52, 240-245]. The GBQ, GPS, Impulsivity subscale of the EIQ, and DDT all exhibited robust divergent validity, however, neither measure of time perspective discriminated between groups. Applications of these findings to etiological research and clinical contexts are discussed.
Subject(s)
Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Cognition Disorders/epidemiology , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/diagnosis , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/epidemiology , Comorbidity , Female , Gambling/psychology , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Humans , Male , Models, Psychological , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Reproducibility of Results , Severity of Illness Index , Surveys and Questionnaires , United States/epidemiologyABSTRACT
The present study investigated the convergent validity of the Gamblers' Beliefs Questionnaire (GBQ), Gambling Passion Scale (GPS), Eysenck Impulsivity Questionnaire (EIQ), and Stanford Time Perception Inventory (STPI) in reference to pathological gambling. The authors recruited 105 undergraduates representing categories of pathological gamblers, potential pathological gamblers, and nonpathological gamblers and administered the measures under neutral conditions. Both subscales of the GBQ and GPS and the Impulsivity subscale of the EIQ exhibited strong convergent validity, whereas the STPI showed weaker correspondence with symptoms of pathological gambling. Applications and limitations of these findings are discussed.
