Year: 2010
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Previous work has shown that both negative urgency (the tendency to engage in risky behavior in response to extreme negative affect ) and positive urgency (the tendency to engage in risky behavior in response to extreme positive affect) correlate with problematic alcohol consumption (Cyders, et al., 2009) .Research has also shown that coping motives (alcohol use to avoid or escape negative affect (Cooper et al., 2000) ) and enhancement motives (alcohol use to pursue or enhance positive affect (Cooper et al., 2000) ) also correlate with problematic alcohol use (Cooper, et al. 2000) .We know, through previous research, that the concept of personality has an effect on acquisition of different learning experiences, which is also known as acquired preparedness (Smith, & Anderson, 2001) .However, there has not been a lot of research done that looks at the mediational effects of learning on the relationship between urgency and alcohol problems.Thus, the goal of this paper is to examine whether negative and positive urgency predict drinking quantity through an increase in the coping and enhancement motives respectively.418 first year students at a public mid-western university participated in the study (75% female, 25% male), they were all sampled three times during the first year of college (beginning of fall semester, end of fall semester, and end of spring semester).Their age ranged from 18 to 32 (mean = 18.2, SD = 0.76), and the majority of the sample was Caucasian.Results showed that negative urgency at time 1 was a significant predictor of drinking quantity at time 3 (β = .239,p< .001),but this relationship was reduced to non-significance with the addition of time 2 coping motives (β = .035,p = .452),and time 2 coping motives became a significant predictor of drinking quantity (β = .498,p<.001) .Positive urgency at time 1 was a significant predictor of drinking quantity at time 3 (β = .258,p<.001).The significance of this relationship was significantly reduced with the addition of time 2 enhancement motives (β = .132,p = .001),and time 2 enhancement motives became a significant predictor of drinking quantity (β = .592,p<.001).This study suggests that the initial presence of the urgency traits leads to learning mood congruent alcohol motives, which then leads to increased alcohol consumption during the first year of college (fully for negative urgency and partially for positive urgency).
Authors: Ayca Coskunpinar, Melissa A. Cyders
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1564565525