Top

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction

Published in:

01-06-2019 | Brief Report

The Sequential Indirect Effect of Negative Urgency on Drinking Consequences Through Distress Intolerance and Drinking Motives: Initial Examination in College Students Reporting Past Month Alcohol Use

Authors: Min-Jeong Yang, Allison Borges, Teresa M. Leyro

Published in: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction | Issue 3/2019

Abstract

Identification of cognitive and affective vulnerabilities among college drinkers may aid in developing focused interventions that promote a reduction in the prevalence of alcohol use. Negative urgency (NU) and distress intolerance (DI) evidence concurrent, unique, and synergistic relations with drinking motives and negative consequences of alcohol use. Utilizing a sequential multiple mediation framework to investigate a comprehensive model of these variables, we examined NU as a behavioral risk factor that potentiates the development of DI, thereby contributing to drinking motives that increase the risk of problematic use in young adults. A diverse sample of undergraduate students (N = 616; M_age = 19.1, SD = 1.4, range = 18–25; 50.6% female; 60.6% Caucasian; recruited between September 2015 and Spring 2017) reporting past month alcohol use completed an online questionnaire battery. The results suggested that NU may contribute to negative alcohol use outcomes via its relation to DI and the motivation to drink in order to cope with negative emotional states and conform to social pressure. These findings suggest that NU may be a primary intervention target in young adults.

Responding “43” or “123” to items asking the years or age of onset of regular drinking

In the current study, participants’ responses were rated on a 4-point scale (1, “never” to 4, “more than 5 times”) due to an error inputting the survey, as opposed to 5-point Likert scale (0, “never” to 4, “more than 10 times”).

Babor, T. F., Higgins-Biddle, J. C., Saunders, J. B., & Monteiro, M. G. (2001). AUDIT: The alcohol use disorders identification test: guidelines for use in primary care: Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence. World Health Organization.

Berking, M., & Wupperman, P. (2012). Emotion regulation and mental health: recent findings, current challenges, and future directions. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 25(2), 128–134.PubMedCrossRef

Berking, M., Margraf, M., Ebert, D., Wupperman, P., Hofmann, S. G., & Junghanns, K. (2011). Deficits in emotion-regulation skills predict alcohol use during and after cognitive–behavioral therapy for alcohol dependence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79(3), 307–318.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Borges, A. M., Dahne, R. J., Lim, A., & MacPherson, L. (2017). Negative affect mediates the relation between trait urgency and behavioral distress tolerance. Emotion, 17(4), 707–716.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Bornovalova, M. A., Gratz, K. L., Daughters, S. B., Hunt, E. D., & Lejuez, C. W. (2012). Initial RCT of a distress tolerance treatment for individuals with substance use disorders. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 122(1), 70–76.PubMedCrossRef

Carey, K. B., & Correia, C. J. (1997). Drinking motives predict alcohol-related problems in college students. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 58(1), 100–105.PubMedCrossRef

Carretero, M., Ruiz, J., Delgado, J., & Gonzalez, C. (2016). Validation of the alcohol use disorders identification test in university students: AUDIT and AUDIT-C. Adicciones, 28(4), 194–204.CrossRef

Chapman, B. P., Hampson, S., & Clarkin, J. (2014). Personality-informed interventions for healthy aging: conclusions from a National Institute on Aging work group. Developmental Psychology, 50(5), 1426–1441.PubMedCrossRef

Cooper, M. L. (1994). Motivations for alcohol use among adolescents: development and validation of a four-factor model. Psychological Assessment, 6(2), 117–128.CrossRef

Cooper, M. L., Frone, M. R., Russell, M., & Mudar, P. (1995). Drinking to regulate positive and negative emotions: a motivational model of alcohol use. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 990–1005.PubMedCrossRef

Coskunpinar, A., & Cyders, M. A. (2012). Mediation–moderation analysis of problematic alcohol use: the roles of urgency, drinking motives, and risk/benefit perception. Addictive Behaviors, 37(7), 880–883.PubMedCrossRef

Coskunpinar, A., Dir, A. L., & Cyders, M. A. (2013). Multidimensionality in impulsivity and alcohol use: a meta-analysis using the UPPS model of impulsivity. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 37(9), 1441–1450.CrossRef

Cougle, J. R., Timpano, K. R., & Goetz, A. R. (2012). Exploring the unique and interactive roles of distress tolerance and negative urgency in obsessions. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(4), 515–520.CrossRef

Curcio, A. L., & George, A. M. (2011). Selected impulsivity facets with alcohol use/problems: the mediating role of drinking motives. Addictive Behaviors, 36, 959–964.PubMedCrossRef

Cyders, M. A., & Smith, G. T. (2008). Emotion-based dispositions to rash action: positive and negative urgency. Psychological Bulletin, 134(6), 807–828.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Cyders, M. A., Littlefield, A. K., Coffey, S., & Karyadi, K. A. (2014). Examination of a short English version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. Addictive Behaviors, 39(9), 1372–1376.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Dennhardt, A. A., & Murphy, J. G. (2011). Associations between depression, distress tolerance, delay discounting, and alcohol-related problems in European American and African American college students. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 25(4), 595–604.PubMedCrossRef

Dir, A. L., Karyadi, K., & Cyders, M. A. (2013). The uniqueness of negative urgency as a common risk factor for self-harm behaviors, alcohol consumption, and eating problems. Addictive Behaviors, 38(5), 2158–2162.PubMedCrossRef

Filbey, F. M., Claus, E., Audette, A. R., Niculescu, M., Banich, M. T., Tanabe, J., et al. (2008). Exposure to the taste of alcohol elicits activation of the mesocorticolimbic neurocircuitry. Neuropsychopharmacology, 33(6), 1391–1401.PubMedCrossRef

Fritz, M. S., Cox, M. G., & MacKinnon, D. P. (2015). Increasing statistical power in mediation models without increasing sample size. Evaluation & the Health Professions, 38(3), 343–366.CrossRef

Greenberg, L. P., Martindale, S. L., Fils-Aimé, L. R., & Dolan, S. L. (2016). Distress tolerance and impulsivity are associated with drug and alcohol use consequences in an online community sample. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 30(1), 50–59.CrossRefPubMed

Hayes, A. F. (2009). Beyond Baron and Kenny: statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. Communication Monographs, 76(4), 408–420.CrossRef

Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. New York: Guilford Press.

Hayes, A. F., & Scharkow, M. (2013). The relative trustworthiness of inferential tests of the indirect effect in statistical mediation analysis does method really matter? Psychological Science, 24(10), 1918–1927.PubMedCrossRef

Hingson, R. W., & Zha, W. (2009). Age of drinking onset, alcohol use disorders, frequent heavy drinking, and unintentionally injuring oneself and others after drinking. Pediatrics, 123(6), 1477–1484.PubMedCrossRef

Hingson, R., Heeren, T., Winter, M., & Wechsler, H. (2005). Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among US college students ages 18–24: changes from 1998 to 2001. Public Health, 26, 259–279.CrossRef

Hingson, R. W., Zha, W., & Weitzman, E. R. (2009). Magnitude of and trends in alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18-24, 1998-2005. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Supplement, (16), 12–20.

Hingson, R. W., Heeren, T., Edwards, E. M., & Saitz, R. (2012). Young adults at risk for excess alcohol consumption are often not asked or counseled about drinking alcohol. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 27(2), 179–184.PubMedCrossRef

Holzhauer, C. G., Wemm, S., & Wulfert, E. (2017). Distress tolerance and physiological reactivity to stress predict women’s problematic alcohol use. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 25(3), 156–165.PubMedCrossRef

Howell, A. N., Leyro, T. M., Hogan, J., Buckner, J. D., & Zvolensky, M. J. (2010). Anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and discomfort intolerance in relation to coping and conformity motives for alcohol use and alcohol use problems among young adult drinkers. Addictive Behaviors, 35(12), 1144–1147.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Kahler, C. W., Strong, D. R., & Read, J. P. (2005). Toward efficient and comprehensive measurement of the alcohol problems continuum in college students: the brief young adult alcohol consequences questionnaire. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 29(7), 1180–1189.PubMedCrossRef

Kaiser, A. J., Milich, R., Lynam, D. R., & Charnigo, R. J. (2012). Negative urgency, distress tolerance, and substance abuse among college students. Addictive Behaviors, 37(10), 1075–1083.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Karyadi, K. A., & King, K. M. (2011). Urgency and negative emotions: evidence for moderation on negative alcohol consequences. Personality and Individual Differences, 51(5), 635–640.CrossRef

Kelly, N. R., Cotter, E. W., & Mazzeo, S. E. (2014). Examining the role of distress tolerance and negative urgency in binge eating behavior among women. Eating Behaviors, 15(3), 483–489.PubMedCrossRef

Keough, M. T., Hines, S., Winslade, A., & O’Connor, R. M. (2015). Negative urgency and gender moderate the association between anxiety sensitivity and alcohol-related problems. Journal of Addiction and Prevention, 3(1), 1–7.

Kuntsche, E., Knibbe, R., Gmel, G., & Engels, R. (2005). Why do young people drink? A review of drinking motives. Clinical Psychology Review, 25, 841–861.PubMedCrossRef

Kuntsche, E., Stewart, S. H., & Cooper, M. L. (2008). How stable is the motive-alcohol use link? A cross-national validation of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire Revised among adolescents from Switzerland, Canada, and the United States. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 69(3), 388–396.PubMedCrossRef

Kuntsche, E., Rossow, I., Engels, R., & Kuntsche, S. (2016). Is “age at first drink” a useful concept in alcohol research and prevention? We doubt that. Addiction, 111(6), 957–965.PubMedCrossRef

Kuvaas, N. J., Dvorak, R. D., Pearson, M. R., Lamis, D. A., & Sargent, E. M. (2014). Self-regulation and alcohol use involvement: a latent class analysis. Addictive Behaviors, 39(1), 146–152.PubMedCrossRef

Leventhal, A. M., & Zvolensky, M. J. (2015). Anxiety, depression, and cigarette smoking: a transdiagnostic vulnerability framework to understanding emotion-smoking comorbidity. Psychological Bulletin, 141(1), 176–212.PubMedCrossRef

Leyro, T. M., Zvolensky, M. J., & Bernstein, A. (2010). Distress tolerance and psychopathological symptoms and disorders: a review of the empirical literature among adults. Psychological Bulletin, 136(4), 576–600.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Littlefield, A. K., Sher, K. J., & Wood, P. K. (2010). Do changes in drinking motives mediate the relation between personality change and “maturing out” of problem drinking? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119(1), 93–105.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Magidson, J. F., Roberts, B. W., Collado-Rodriguez, A., & Lejuez, C. (2014). Theory-driven intervention for changing personality: expectancy value theory, behavioral activation, and conscientiousness. Developmental Psychology, 50(5), 1442–1450.PubMedCrossRef

Marshall-Berenz, E. C., Vujanovic, A. A., & MacPherson, L. (2011). Impulsivity and alcohol use coping motives in a trauma-exposed sample: the mediating role of distress tolerance. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(5), 588–592.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

McHugh, R. K., & Otto, M. W. (2011). Domain-general and domain-specific strategies for the assessment of distress intolerance. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 25(4), 745–749.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

McHugh, R. K., & Otto, M. W. (2012). Refining the measurement of distress intolerance. Behavior Therapy, 43(3), 641–651.PubMedCrossRef

Merrill, J. E., Wardell, J. D., & Read, J. P. (2014). Drinking motives in the prospective prediction of unique alcohol-related consequences in college students. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 75(1), 93–102.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Murphy, C., & MacKillop, J. (2012). Living in the here and now: interrelationships between impulsivity, mindfulness, and alcohol misuse. Psychopharmacology, 219(2), 527–536.PubMedCrossRef

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (2015). College drinking fact sheet. Washington, DC: NIH Publication.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (2003). Helping patients with alcohol problems: a health practitioner’s guide. Washington, DC: NIH Publication.

Németh, Z., Kuntsche, E., Urbán, R., Farkas, J., & Demetrovics, Z. (2011). Why do festival goers drink? Assessment of drinking motives using the DMQ-R SF in a recreational setting. Drug and Alcohol Review, 30(1), 40–46.PubMedCrossRef

Peterson, C. M., Davis-Becker, K., & Fischer, S. (2014). Interactive role of depression, distress tolerance and negative urgency on non-suicidal self-injury. Personality and Mental Health, 8(2), 151–160.PubMedCrossRef

Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36(4), 717–731.CrossRef

Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008a). Contemporary approaches to assessing mediation in communication research. In A. F. Hayes, M. D. Slater, & L. B. Snyder (Eds.), The Sage sourcebook of advanced data analysis methods for communication research (pp. 13–54). Thousand Oaks: Sage.CrossRef

Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008b). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891.PubMedCrossRef

Preacher, K. J., & Kelley, K. (2011). Effect size measures for mediation models: quantitative strategies for communicating indirect effects. Psychological Methods, 16(2), 93–115.PubMedCrossRef

Read, J. P., Merrill, J., Kahler, C., & Strong, D. (2007). Predicting functional outcomes among college drinkers: reliability and predictive validity of the young adult alcohol consequences questionnaire. Addictive Behaviors, 32, 2597–2610.PubMedCrossRef

Rindfleisch, A., Malter, A. J., Ganesan, S., & Moorman, C. (2008). Cross-sectional versus longitudinal survey research: concepts, findings, and guidelines. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(3), 261–279.CrossRef

Robinson, S. M., Sobell, L. C., Sobell, M. B., & Leo, G. I. (2014). Reliability of the timeline followback for cocaine, cannabis, and cigarette use. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 28(1), 154–162.PubMedCrossRef

Rumpf, H.-J., Hapke, U., Meyer, C., & John, U. (2002). Screening for alcohol use disorders and at-risk drinking in the general population: psychometric performance of three questionnaires. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 37(3), 261–268.PubMedCrossRef

Saunders, J. B., Aasland, O. G., Babor, T. F., De la Fuente, J. R., & Grant, M. (1993). Development of the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption-II. Addiction, 88(6), 791–804.PubMed

Schaus, J. F., Sole, M. L., McCoy, T. P., Mullett, N., & O'Brien, M. C. (2009). Alcohol screening and brief intervention in a college student health center: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Supplement, (16), 131–142.

Shishido, H., Gaher, R. M., & Simons, J. S. (2013). I don’t know how I feel, therefore I act: alexithymia, urgency, and alcohol problems. Addictive Behaviors, 38(4), 2014–2017.PubMedCrossRef

Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: new procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7(4), 422–445.PubMed

Sobell, L. C., & Sobell, M. B. (1992). Timeline follow-back. In R. Z. Litten & J. P. Allen (Eds.), Measuring alcohol consumption: psychosocial and biochemical methods (pp. 41–72). Totowa: Humana Press.CrossRef

Sobell, L. C., & Sobell, M. B. (1995). Alcohol timeline followback users’ manual. Toronto: Addiction Research Foundation.

Sobell, L. C., Brown, J., Leo, G. I., & Sobell, M. B. (1996). The reliability of the alcohol timeline followback when administered by telephone and by computer. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 42(1), 49–54.PubMedCrossRef

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2013). National survey on drug use and health: detailed tables. Rockville: Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality.

US Department of Health & Human Services. (2017). Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015–2020. New York: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.

Wardell, J., Quilty, L., & Hendershot, C. (2016). Impulsivity, working memory, and impaired control over alcohol: a latent variable analysis. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30(5), 544–554.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Wechsler, H., Lee, J. E., Kuo, M., Seibring, M., Nelson, T. F., & Lee, H. (2002). Trends in college binge drinking during a period of increased prevention efforts: findings from 4 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study surveys: 1993–2001. Journal of American College Health, 50(5), 203–217.PubMedCrossRef

Weitzman, E. R., Nelson, T. F., Lee, H., & Wechsler, H. (2004). Reducing drinking and related harms in college: evaluation of the “a matter of degree” program. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 27(3), 187–196.PubMed

West, S. G., Finch, J. F., & Curran, P. J. (1995). Structural equation models with nonnormal variables: problems and remedies. In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Structural equation modeling: concepts, issues and applications (pp. 56–75). Newbery Park: Sage.

White, A., & Hingson, R. (2014). The burden of alcohol use: excessive alcohol consumption and related consequences among college students. Alcohol Research: Current Reviews, 35(2), 201–218.

White, H. R., & Labouvie, E. W. (1989). Towards the assessment of adolescent problem drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 50(1), 30–37.CrossRef

Title: The Sequential Indirect Effect of Negative Urgency on Drinking Consequences Through Distress Intolerance and Drinking Motives: Initial Examination in College Students Reporting Past Month Alcohol Use
Authors: Min-Jeong Yang
Allison Borges
Teresa M. Leyro
Publication date: 01-06-2019
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction / Issue 3/2019
Print ISSN: 1557-1874
Electronic ISSN: 1557-1882
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00068-3

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

The Sequential Indirect Effect of Negative Urgency on Drinking Consequences Through Distress Intolerance and Drinking Motives: Initial Examination in College Students Reporting Past Month Alcohol Use

Abstract

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 3/2019

Post-Secondary Student Mental Health and Well-being: a Systems and Intersectionality-Informed Approach

Brief Interventions for Cannabis Problems in the Postsecondary Setting: a Systematic Review

An Interview Between a Professor and a Nursing Graduate Student on the Current State of Post-secondary Student Mental Health in Ontario, Canada

Comparing Two Alcohol Screening Measures on Rates of Risky Alcohol Use in a University Health Clinic

Smartphone Addiction and Its Relationship with Cyberbullying Among University Students

Does Ethnicity Moderate the Link Between Drinking Norms and Binge Drinking in College Students?