Authors: Paul Christiansen Jon C Cole Andrew J Goudie Matt Field
Publish Date: 2011/07/07
Volume: 219, Issue: 2, Pages: 501-510
Abstract
Hazardous drinking is associated with both increased impulsivity and automatic approach tendencies elicited by alcoholrelated cues However impulsivity is a multifactorial construct and it is currently unclear if all components of impulsivity are associated with heavy drinking Furthermore emerging evidence suggests that the relationships between hazardous drinking and automatic alcohol cognitions may be moderated by individual differences in impulsivityThe aim of this study was to investigate the independence of measures of impulsivity and their association with hazardous drinking and to examine if the relationship between hazardous drinking and automatic alcohol approach tendencies would be moderated by individual differences in impulsivityNinetyseven social drinkers 65 female completed questionnaire measures of trait impulsivity alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking Participants also completed computerised measures of automatic alcohol approach tendencies stimulus–response compatibility SRC task and two behavioural measures of impulsivity Go/Nogo and delay discounting tasksPrincipal component analysis revealed that the two measures of behavioural impulsivity were distinct from each other and from selfreported trait impulsivity although selfreported nonplanning impulsivity loaded on to two factors trait impulsivity and delay discounting Furthermore all measures of impulsivity predicted unique variance in hazardous drinking as did automatic alcohol approach tendencies although the latter relationship was not moderated by impulsivity
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