Citation

Peterson SJ, Smith GT. Addiction 2017; 112(11): 2043-2052.

Affiliation

124 Kastle Hall, Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506-0044, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/add.13905

PMID

28600883

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Among U.S. high school students, alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking are associated with numerous concurrent and future harms. We tested whether multiple elementary school personality dispositions to behave impulsively can predict these addictive behaviors invariably across gender and race. DESIGN AND SETTING: This longitudinal design involved testing whether individual differences on impulsigenic traits in elementary school predicted drinking and smoking four years later in high school in 23 public schools in Kentucky, USA. PARTICIPANTS: 1,897 youth ages 11 to 15, drawn from urban, rural, and suburban backgrounds. MEASUREMENTS: Drinking and smoking frequency were assessed by single item questions. The key predictors were impulsigenic traits measured with the UPPS-P Child Version impulsive behavior scale. Important covariates included were pubertal status, depression, negative affect, and positive affect; each was assessed by self-report.

FINDINGS: Three personality traits measured in 5(th) grade, each representing different dispositions to engage in impulsive behavior, predicted drinking and smoking in 9(th) grade above and beyond other risk factors and 5(th) grade drinking and smoking. Specifically, urgency (b =.10,.13), sensation seeking (b =.13,.07), and low conscientiousness (b =.14,.11) each uniquely predicted both high school drinking and smoking, respectively. There was no evidence that any trait predicted either outcome more strongly than the other traits, nor was there evidence that predictive results varied by gender or race.

CONCLUSIONS: Three personality traits (urgency, sensation seeking, and low conscientiousness), when measured in 11-year-old children, individually predict those children's drinking and smoking behavior at age 15. The effects are invariant across gender and race.

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Language: en

Keywords

adolescence; drinking; impulsivity; personality; risk; smoking