The current study examines a recently developed short version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. Participants were 251 undergraduate students (59.3% male; mean age = 21.16 (SD = 4.18); 72% Caucasian). The short version generally replicated the internal consistency (0.74 – 0.88 across subscales) and inter-scale correlations of the full UPPS-P. Moreover, the estimated loss of shared variance was small (0% – 6.4% reductions across subscales) as compared to a 66% time-savings. Structural equation modeling replicated previously supported factor structures and relationships to external outcomes using the full UPPS-P. The short UPPS-P scale should be considered a valid and reliable alternative to the full UPPS-P.

Problematic alcohol involvement typically peaks in the early 20s and declines with age. This maturing out of alcohol involvement is usually attributed to individuals attaining adult statuses incompatible with heavy drinking. Nevertheless, little is known about how changes in problematic alcohol use during emerging/early adulthood relate to changes in etiologically relevant personality traits that also change during this period. This study examined the relation between changes in problematic alcohol involvement and personality (measures of impulsivity, neuroticism, and extraversion) from ages 18 to 35 in a cohort of college students (N = 489) at varying risk for alcohol use disorders. Latent growth models indicated that both normative and individual changes in alcohol involvement occur between ages 18 and 35 and that these changes are associated with changes in neuroticism and impulsivity. Moreover, marital and parental role statuses did not appear to be third-variable explanations of the associated changes in alcohol involvement and personality. Findings suggest that personality change may be an important mechanism in the maturing-out effect.Keywords personality change; personality; alcohol use disorders; maturing out; prospective study Problematic alcohol involvement, including drinking that leads to unwanted consequences and/ or alcohol use disorders (AUDs), tends to increase through late adolescence, peak in the early 20s, and decline as individuals age (Dawson, Grant, Stinson, & Chou, 2004;Fillmore, 1988;Johnston, O'Malley, & Bachman, 1998). This period of normative decline in problematic use has been referred to as maturing out (Christo, 1998;Donovan, Jessor, & Jessor, 1983;Winick, 1962) and is thought to be linked to individuals' assuming adult roles and responsibilities and adopting a more conventional lifestyle (Bachman et al., 2002;Fillmore, 1988;Jessor, Donovan, & Costa, 1991;Yamaguchi & Kandel, 1985) toward the end of "emerging adulthood" (roughly ages 18-25 years old; Arnett, 2000), the transitional period from adolescence to young adulthood.In a recent article reviewing the tendency of individuals to mature out of problematic alcohol use, O'Malley (2004O'Malley ( -2005 discussed common transitions experienced during emerging adulthood, such as marriage and parenthood, and how they relate to declines in problematic drinking. For example, marriage has been shown to reduce alcohol consumption, especially problematic alcohol use (Bachman et al., 2002;Bachman, Wadsworth, O'Malley, Johnston, & Schulenberg, 1997;Leonard & Rothbard, 1999). Pregnant women appear to reduce their alcohol use for a number of reasons, including the belief that alcohol is harmful to the Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Andrew K. Littlefield, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, 200 South 7th Street, Columbia, MO 65211-0001. E-mail: littlefielda@missouri.edu. (Coles, 1994). Furthermore, becoming a parent appears to be the key event to prompt men to reduce thei...

Recent research has indicated that developmental changes in the personality traits of neuroticism and impulsivity correlate with changes in problem drinking during emerging and young adulthood. However, it remains unclear what potential mechanisms, or mediators, could account for these associations. Drinking motives, particularly drinking to regulate negative affect (drinking to cope) and to get "high" or "drunk" (drinking for enhancement) have been posited to mediate the relationship between personality and drinking problems. Recent work indicates changes in drinking motives parallel changes in alcohol involvement from adolescence to young adulthood. The current study examined changes in drinking motives (i.e., coping and enhancement) as potential mediators of the relation between changes in personality (impulsivity and neuroticism) with changes in alcohol problems in emerging and young adulthood. Analyses were based on data collected from a cohort of college students (N=489) at varying risk for AUDs from ages 18-35. Parallel process latent growth modeling indicated that change in coping (but not enhancement) motives specifically mediated the relation between changes in neuroticism and alcohol problems as well as the relation between changes in impulsivity and alcohol problems. Findings suggest that change in coping motives is an important mechanism in the relation between personality change and the "maturing out" of problematic alcohol involvement.Keywords personality change; drinking motives; alcohol use disorders; maturing out; prospective study During emerging and young adulthood, normative developmental changes in both problematic alcohol involvement and personality traits occur. Perhaps the most salient aspect of the epidemiology of heavy use, alcohol problems, and alcohol use disorders (AUDS) in North America (at least among individuals of European descent) is the peak hazard and prevalence in emerging adulthood and the rapid decrease in both onset and prevalence that occurs in the latter part of the third decade of life (e.g., Bachman et al., 2002;Fillmore, 1988;Grant et al., Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Andrew K. Littlefield, University of Missouri-Columbia, Department of Psychological Sciences, 200 South 7th St., Columbia, MO 65211-0001. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at www.apa.org/pubs/journals/abn. 5 The intercept for the manifest coping variable at Wave 7 was freely estimated to improve convergence between the observed and estimated means involving coping motives at Wave...

Background Impulsivity critically relates to many psychiatric disorders. Given the multi-faceted construct that impulsivity represents, defining core aspects of impulsivity is vital for the assessment and understanding of clinical conditions. Choice impulsivity (CI), involving the preferential selection of smaller sooner rewards over larger later rewards, represents one important type of impulsivity. Method The International Society for Research on Impulsivity (InSRI) convened to discuss the definition and assessment of CI and provide recommendations regarding measurement across species. Results Commonly used preclinical and clinical CI behavioral tasks are described, and considerations for each task are provided to guide CI task selection. Differences in assessment of CI (self-report, behavioral) and calculating CI indices (e.g., area-under-the-curve, indifference point, steepness of discounting curve) are discussed along with properties of specific behavioral tasks used in preclinical and clinical settings. Conclusions The InSRI group recommends inclusion of measures of CI in human studies examining impulsivity. Animal studies examining impulsivity should also include assessments of CI and these measures should be harmonized in accordance with human studies of the disorders being modeled in the preclinical investigations. The choice of specific CI measures to be included should be based on the goals of the study and existing preclinical and clinical literature using established CI measures.

Kindergarten to 3 rd grade mathematics achievement scores from a prospective study of mathematical development were subjected to latent growth trajectory analyses (n = 306). The four corresponding classes included children with mathematical learning disability (MLD, 6% of sample), and low (LA, 50%), typically (TA, 39%) and high (HA, 5%) achieving children. The groups were administered a battery of intelligence (IQ), working memory, and mathematical-cognition measures in 1 st grade. The children with MLD had general deficits in working memory and IQ, and potentially more specific deficits on measures of number sense. The LA children did not have working memory or IQ deficits, but showed moderate deficits on these number sense measures and for addition fact retrieval. The distinguishing features of the HA children were a strong visuospatial working memory, a strong number sense, and frequent use of memory-based processes to solve addition problems. Implications for the early identification of children at risk for poor mathematics achievement are discussed.About 7% of children and adolescents will experience a substantive learning deficit in at least one area of mathematics (MLD) before graduating from high school (Barbaresi, Katusic, Colligan, Weaver, & Jacobsen 2005;Lewis, Hitch, & Walker, 1994;Ostad, 1998;Shalev, Manor, & Gross-Tsur, 2005), and are accompanied by another 5% to 10% of children and adolescents, and perhaps more, with learning difficulties (for reviews see Dowker, 2005). The latter students have specific difficulties in one more areas of mathematics that are independent of cognitive ability and reading achievement, and in this sense might be considered to have a moderate learning disability in mathematics. It is not known if the factors underlying their difficulties are simply less pervasive or severe as those that appear to underlie MLD or are qualitatively different (e.g., due to poor instruction; Geary, Hoard, Byrd-Craven, Nugent, & Numtee, 2007;Murphy, Mazzocco, Hanich, & Early, 2007). Thus, we distinguished the two groups and classified the children with moderate difficulties as low achieving (LA), to be consistent with recent studies (e.g., Murphy et al., 2007). Other unresolved issues concern the extent of the grade-to-grade stability of a child's classification as MLD or LA (Silver, Pennett, Black, Fair, & Balise, 1999) and identification of the early risk factors for long-term inclusion in one or the other of these groups (Gersten, Jordan, & Flojo, 2005).We addressed each of these issues using data from a longitudinal, prospective study of children's mathematical learning and learning disability (Geary, in press). Using latent growth David C. Geary, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-2500, Phone: 573-882-6268, Fax: 573-882-7710, GearyD@Missouri.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscr...

Impulsivity is a multi-faceted construct that is a core feature of multiple psychiatric conditions and personality disorders. However, progress in understanding and treating impulsivity in the context of these conditions is limited by a lack of precision and consistency in its definition and assessment. Rapid-response-impulsivity (RRI) represents a tendency toward immediate action that occurs with diminished forethought and is out of context with the present demands of the environment. Experts from the International Society for Research on Impulsivity (InSRI) met to discuss and evaluate RRI-measures in terms of reliability, sensitivity, and validity with the goal of helping researchers and clinicians make informed decisions about the use and interpretation of findings from RRI-measures. Their recommendations are described in this manuscript. Commonly-used clinical and preclinical RRI-tasks are described, and considerations are provided to guide task selection. Tasks measuring two conceptually and neurobiologically distinct types of RRI, “refraining from action initiation” (RAI) and “stopping an ongoing action” (SOA) are described. RAI and SOA-tasks capture distinct aspects of RRI that may relate to distinct clinical outcomes. The InSRI group recommends that: 1) selection of RRI-measures should be informed by careful consideration of the strengths, limitations, and practical considerations of the available measures; 2) researchers use both RAI and SOA tasks in RRI studies to allow for direct comparison of RRI types and examination of their associations with clinically relevant measures; and, 3) similar considerations should be made for human and non-human studies in an effort to harmonize and integrate pre-clinical and clinical research.

To test whether a modified version of prolonged exposure (mPE) can effectively treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in individuals with co-occurring PTSD and substance dependence, an efficacy trial was conducted in which substance dependent treatment-seekers with PTSD (N = 126, male = 54.0%, White = 79.4%) were randomly assigned to mPE, mPE + trauma-focused motivational enhancement session (mPE+MET-PTSD), or a health information-based control condition (HLS). All participants were multiply traumatized; the median number of reported traumas that satisfied DSM-IV Criterion A for PTSD was 8. Treatment consisted of 9–12 60 min. individual therapy sessions plus substance abuse treatment-as-usual. Participants were assessed at baseline, end-of-treatment, and at 3- and 6-months posttreatment. Both the mPE and mPE+MET-PTSD conditions achieved significantly better PTSD outcome than the control condition. The mPE+MET-PTSD and mPE conditions did not differ from one another on PTSD symptoms at end of treatment, 3-, or 6-month follow-up. Substance use outcomes did not differ between groups with all groups achieving 85.7–97.9% days abstinent at follow-up. In regard to clinically significant improvement in trauma symptoms, 75.8 % of the mPE participants, 60.0% of the mPE+MET-PTSD participants, and 44.4% of the HLS participants experienced clinically significant improvement at the end-of-treatment. Results indicate mPE, with or without an MET-PTSD session, can effectively treat PTSD in patients with co-occurring PTSD and substance dependence. In addition, mPE session lengths may better suit standard clinical practice and are associated with medium effect sizes.

Substantial longitudinal relations between children's early mathematics achievement and their much later mathematics achievement are firmly established. These findings are seemingly at odds with studies showing that early educational interventions have diminishing effects on children's mathematics achievement across time. We hypothesized that individual differences in children's later mathematical knowledge are more an indicator of stable, underlying characteristics related to mathematics learning throughout development than of direct effects of early mathematical competency on later mathematical competency. We tested this hypothesis in two longitudinal data sets, by simultaneously modeling effects of latent traits (stable characteristics that influence learning across time) and states (e.g., prior knowledge) on children's mathematics achievement over time. Latent trait effects on children's mathematical development were substantially larger than state effects. Approximately 60% of the variance in trait mathematics achievement was accounted for by commonly used control variables, such as working memory, but residual trait effects remained larger than state effects. Implications for research and practice are discussed.