Negative urgency and risky sexual behaviors: A clarification of the relationship between impulsivity and risky sexual behavior

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Abstract

How does impulsivity relate to risky sexual behavior? Whereas some research has attempted to answer this question in terms of global impulsivity, past research has demonstrated the need to conceptualize impulsivity as a multifaceted trait (Whiteside & Lynam, 2001). Research has been mixed as to which facets of impulsivity predict risky sexual behavior. The major aim of this project was to further the understanding between the five facets of impulsivity (positive urgency, negative urgency, lack of premeditation, sensation-seeking, and lack of perseverance) and risky sexual behavior. This study used a longitudinal design and showed that risky sex was highest among people who act rashly on the basis of negative emotion (negative urgency) and who crave novel, exciting situations (sensation seeking). These findings add to a growing body of literature on the importance of different facets of impulsivity in predicting risky sexual behavior.

Highlights

► Past research has been mixed as to which facets of impulsivity predict risky sexual behavior. ► This study examined this relationship in undergraduate students over the course of a semester. ► Results indicate that the facets negative urgency and sensation seeking are the strongest predictors of risky sexual behavior.

Section snippets

Impulsivity

Humans, unlike many non-human animals, have a remarkably sophisticated ability to control their impulses. Yet, people frequently fail to adequately control their impulses. Perhaps as a result, impulsivity has received considerable theoretical and empirical attention throughout the history of psychology. To resolve some of the dispute of how to define impulsivity, Whiteside and Lynam (2001) factor analyzed several widely used self-report measures of impulsivity in order to decipher the factor

Risky sexual behavior

The relationship between facets of impulsivity and risky sexual behavior has implications for students’ sexual health. Sexually transmitted diseases are a pervasive threat on college campuses today. Evidence of this can be seen in the fact that 20,000,000 people are infected with sexually transmitted diseases (including AIDS) every year in the United States. Further, it is estimated that 20,000 people die every year due to sexual activity mainly from HIV and also the hepatitis B and C viruses,

Different facets of impulsivity and risky sexual behavior

Risky sex constitutes a form of impulsive behavior because people fail to override their urge to refrain from behavior that may threaten their health. A growing body of research has examined which facets of impulsivity prove useful in predicting risky sexual behavior. But this research has yielded somewhat mixed results.

It may not come as a surprise that sensation seeking was one of the first facets of impulsivity that was examined in searching for links with risky sexual behavior. This

Participants

Students were recruited from undergraduate psychology 100 classes. There were 172 total students (138 females, 32 males, two did not indicate gender) who participated in this study. Participants’ age (M = 19.04, SD = 3.97) and race (White/Caucasian 76.2%, Black/African-American = 12.4%, Asian = 4.9%, More Than One Race = 3.9%, and Other = 1.6%) demographics were both typical of large mid-western universities.

Students completed three waves of surveys during the course of the semester. The first wave

Analytic strategy

Because the data have a nested structure (waves nested within individual participants), they violate the assumption of nonindependence in ordinary least squares regression. To account for this statistical nonindependence, multilevel modeling was used (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). State variables and self-reported behavioral measures were entered at the within-person level (i.e., level-1), whereas trait measures were entered at the between-person level (i.e., level-2). The final number of level-1

Discussion

People engage in risky sexual behavior for many reasons. We argue that examining which facets of impulsivity predict risky sexual behavior offers a key to unlocking the mystery of who is most likely to put their health in jeopardy. We predicted that risky sexual behavior would be highest among people who chronically make irrational decisions on the basis of strong negative emotions and who crave excitement and novelty. We did not predict that positive urgency, lack of perseverance, or lack of

Conclusion

This study set out to further investigate the relationship between facets of impulsivity and risky sexual behavior. Our study supported the hypothesis that negative urgency and sensation seeking would relate to increased risky sexual behavior. These findings suggest that not all forms of impulsivity have implications for risky sexual behavior. Although sex can be a thrilling activity, people who act impulsively on the basis of strong negative emotion and who crave novelty and excitement are at

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    This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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