Impulsivity, Emotional Intelligence, and Alcohol Consumption in Young People: A Mediation Analysis

Abstract

Alcohol consumption in young people is a public health problem. Due to the harmful consequences and the large population using alcoholic substances, it would be important to determine the biological, psychological, and social factors associated with alcohol use and abuse. The main object of this study is to explore which components of impulsivity, according to the main theoretical models, have predictive power regarding alcohol consumption in young people. A secondary objective is to determine if emotional intelligence has a mediating role between the components of impulsivity and alcohol consumption, and thus specifically contribute to the knowledge about the mediation processes between those variables that are involved in the initiation and maintenance of alcohol consumption. For this purpose, 384 participants were recruited (83.1% females, n = 319), with mean age of 20.46 years (SD = 1.90; range 18–25). All participants were alcohol consumers at the beginning of the study. Data collection was conducted via online survey; impulsivity was evaluated by several questionnaires (Sensation Seeking Scale Form V, Barratt Impulsivity Scales 11, and Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward), and emotional intelligence was evaluated by the Trait Meta-Mood Scale. The results reveal that the dimension of disinhibition (a dimension of the sensation search scale) significantly has the highest predictive value on alcohol consumption. Moreover, our data show that the total effect and direct effect of disinhibition on frequency of alcohol consumption were both significant. The mediating role of emotional intelligence in this process was also significant. These findings show which variables should be considered to prevent alcohol consumption in young people.

Escala Búsqueda de Sensaciones (Forma V) de Zuckerman estudio psicométrico en población adolescente Mexicana

“…Respecto a las evidencias de validez, las moderadas correlaciones positivas entre la escala total y dos subescalas (BE y DES) con la impulsividad de Plutchik, la CRAFFT y el CDTC son las esperadas. Coin-ciden con las relaciones halladas en otros estudios entre Búsqueda de sensaciones e impulsividad (Merchán-Clavellino et al, 2020;Aluja et al, 2009;Archer et al, 2012;Laplana et al, 2014), el abuso de sustancias (Chen et al, 2013;Jamt et al, 2020;Lydon-Staley, Falk, & Bassett, 2019;Schmidt, Molina & Raimundi, 2017) y la sintomatología de comportamiento antisocial (Aluja et al, 2009;Archer et al, 2012;Laplana et al, 2014). La ausencia de relación con la escala BAE también se han reportado en otros estudios por ejemplo en el de Merchán-Clavellino et al, (2020) respecto a la impulsividad, y también en el de Schmidt, Molina & Raimundi (2017), el único estudio en el que se estudió la relación de cada subescala con el consumo de sustancias (concretamente alcohol), se reportó una correlación muy baja entre el consumo de alcohol y la subescala BAE (las otras mostraron correlaciones moderadas).…”

“…Las bases biológicas, incluidas las genéticas del rasgo de BS son notables (Aluja et al, 2019;Oberlin et al, 2019), aunque también muestra sensibilidad al ambiente (Stoel, De Geus & Boomsma, 2006). Asimismo, se asocia con conducción temeraria (Qu, Zhang & Ge, 2020), consumo de sustancias (Chen et al, 2013;Jamt et al, 2020;Lydon-Staley, Falk, & Bassett, 2019;Merchán-Clavellino et al, 2020;Schmidt, Molina & Raimundi, 2017), conductas sexuales de riesgo (Chen et al, 2013;Dunne et al, 2019;Longo et al, 2020) aunque en otros estudios no se observa dicha asociación (Espinoza et al, 2019). También se ha estudiado la relación con conductas de riesgo de forma genérica (Lydon-Staley, Falk, & Bassett, 2019;Safa et al, 2019).…”

“…También se ha estudiado la relación con conductas de riesgo de forma genérica (Lydon-Staley, Falk, & Bassett, 2019;Safa et al, 2019). De modo que puede concluirse que la búsqueda de sensaciones tiene una relación positiva con la impulsividad (Merchán-Clavellino et al, 2020).…”

Associations Among Functional and Dysfunctional Impulsivity: Direct and Indirect Effects on Sensation Seeking in Youth (19-25 Years Old)

“…Impulsivity is not a unitary construct (Adams et al, 2012;Maraz et al, 2016), but it is a multifaceted (Evren & Bozkurt, 2017;Maccalum et al, 2007;Netto et al, 2016), multidimensional (Adams et al, 2012;Maccalum et al, 2007;Magid et al, 2007;Ramakrishnan et al, 2019), complex (Magid et al, 2007), heterogeneous (Dick et al, 2010) construct. Impulsivity is characterized by rapid, unpredictable, unplanned, spontaneous, rashly and sudden reactions to stimuli (Adams et al, 2012;Chase et al, 2017;Dick et al, 2010;Maccalum et al, 2007;Pérez Fuentes et al, 2016;Ramakrishnan et al, 2019), rapid decision-making and action (Magid et al, 2007;Patton et al, 1995), before complete processing of information, without considering all the information available (Maccalum et al, 2007;Molero Jurado et al, 2020;Pérez Fuentes et al, 2016), without adequate forethought, deliberation, premeditation or planning (Adams et al, 2012;Charnigo et al, 2013;Chase et al, 2017;Daurio et al, 2018;Dick et al, 2010;Gunn et al, 2018;Harden & Tucker-Drob, 2011;Johansen, 2014;Lynam, n.d.;Maccalum et al, 2007;Magid et al, 2007;Merchán-Clavellino et al, 2020;Molero Jurado et al, 2020;Patton et al, 1995;Ramakrishnan et al, 2019;Reas et al, 2016;…”

Will guidelines on alcohol consumption be personalized by a genetic approach?

“…Following this knowledge, there are attempts to implement bitterness or burning taste to structure a sensory hindrance to alcohol overconsumption [ 25 ]. Certainly, the psychological reward mechanisms are important to influence drinking pattern especially among younger individuals [ 26 ], but it is unreasonable to believe that they cannot be influenced by several types of interventions including a strong educational campaign to reduce excess of alcohol consumption.…”