Select Dimensions of Impulsivity and Problem Drinking Among College Students: The Mediating Role of Sex-Related Alcohol Expectancies and Drinking before Sex

The prevalence of alcohol use among young adults age 18-24 exceeds that of any other age group within the United States and is more prevalent and problematic among those young adults attending college. Previous research has shown that risk for problem drinking among college students is strongly predicted by dispositional impulsivity and that this relationship is partially explained by alcohol expectancies, or beliefs about the consequences of alcohol use. A particular subset of alcohol expectancies—sex-related alcohol expectancies—are strongly linked to problem drinking and in particular, alcohol use before sex in college samples. Thus, the current study examined whether the relationship between impulsivity and problem drinking among college students could be explained by sex-related alcohol expectancies and alcohol use at sex. The authors examined five dimensions of impulsivity to assess their unique contribution to problem drinking among a college sample (N = 101). Of these, only lack of premeditation and sensation seeking contributed unique variance to problem drinking; lack of perseverance, positive urgency and negative urgency did not. Results also indicated that the relationship between lack of premeditation and problem drinking was serially mediated by sex-related alcohol expectancies and alcohol use at sex, respectively. However, the relationship between sensation seeking and problem drinking was not explained by these factors. Findings suggest that interventions targeting specific dimensions of impulsivity and challenging alcohol expectancies should be tested among college students to clarify how best to mitigate problem drinking and related problems among this at-risk population.