Negative urgency and alcohol-related problems: indirect links with alcohol expectancies and drinking motives

Self-control and problematic use of social networking sites: Examining distress tolerance as a mediator among Argentinian college students

“…That is, individual differences in the disposition to act rashly when experiencing unusually intense (positive or negative) emotions seem to increase the vulnerability of college students to engage in maladaptive use of SNSs. This is in line with research proposing that the urgency dimensions are salient predictors of problematic patterns of substance-related (e.g., alcohol: Bø et al, 2016 , Bravo et al, 2018 , Wolkowicz et al, 2020 ; marijuana: Gunn et al, 2018 ) and non-substance related addictive behaviors (e.g., gambling: Canale et al, 2015 ). Although all UPPS-P facets have been found to be associated with different indicators of diverse addictive behaviors ( Coskunpinar et al, 2013 , vanderVeen et al, 2016 ), urgency seems more strongly associated with the negative consequences of these behaviors ( Smith & Cyders, 2016 ).…”

“…The prominent role of urgency (i.e., the tendency to act rashly under intense positive or negative emotional states) suggests that, for some individuals, SNSs use may represent a dysfunctional strategy to regulate intense positive or negative emotions ( Rothen et al, 2018 ). This is consistent with research from the alcohol and food addiction literature where negative urgency was significantly associated with alcohol-related problems ( Wolkowicz et al, 2020 ) or symptoms of food addiction ( Pivarunas & Conner, 2015 ). It is possible, therefore, that a pathway to problematic use of SNSs entails emotion-driven impulsivity or acting impulsively while experiencing intense emotional states attempting to regulate affect.…”

The influence of negative urgency and mood inductions on alcohol cognitions

“…Third, it is possible our study was underpowered to detect certain effects. Our sample size is comparable or larger to other investigations studying NU and alcohol cognitions and our observed pattern of main effects are similar (Anthenien et al., 2017; Fischer et al., 2012; Spillane et al., 2012; Spillane & Smith, 2010; Wolkowicz et al., 2020). Nonetheless, interaction effects can be small and underpowered when compared with main effects (Brysbaert, 2019; Sherman & Pashler, 2019) and given the number of models tested, we opted for a conservative approach (i.e., Bonferroni correction) to protect against Type I errors.…”

“…This result could reflect a general desire for mood improvement from alcohol among those higher in NU. Research has found NU is associated with greater endorsement of both coping (internal, negative emotional reinforcement) and enhancement (internal, positive reinforcement) drinking motives (Adams et al., 2012; Anthenien et al., 2017; Wolkowicz et al., 2020) and experimental investigations have noted NU prompts greater activation of implicit alcohol cognitions across both positive and negative mood inductions (Treloar & McCarthy, 2012). Additionally, some researchers have questioned whether NU and positive urgency (i.e., the tendency to act rashly during positive emotional states) are truly distinct constructs (Berg et al., 2015; Smith & Cyders, 2016), as they are often similarly correlated with each other (including in the present sample, both within and across conditions: r 's = 0.59–64, p 's < 0.001) and with respect to alcohol and substance use.…”

“…For example, higher levels of NU predict greater endorsement of both positive and negative AOE, suggesting high-NU individuals view alcohol's effects globally as more likely than low-NU individuals (Anthenien et al, 2017;Settles et al, 2010;Spillane et al, 2012). Research has also shown positive associations between NU and negative AEV (Wolkowicz et al, 2020), suggesting NU prompts more favorable impressions of alcohol's supposedly "negative" effects. Additionally, NU predicts increased alcohol craving (VanderVeen et al, 2016).…”