Background

Heightened behavioural impulsivity has been advocated as pre-existing risk factors for the development of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Nonetheless, studies investigating impulsivity in adolescent/young adult at-risk drinkers – who are at increased risk of developing AUD – report mixed findings. This may be due to methodological limitations related to definitions of at-risk drinking, the retrospective assessment of alcohol intake, and/or the relatively modest sample size of some studies.

Methods

Healthy individuals (N = 814, Mage = 22.50) completed online surveys and a measure of choice impulsivity. Of these, a number also undertook an online measure of response inhibition (n = 627, Mage = 22.66), and a further subgroup submitted real-time alcohol consumption information for a period of 21 days using an app (n = 543, Mage = 22.96). Differences in behavioural impulsivity were assessed as a function of various at-risk alcohol intake categories. Hierarchical multiple regression was employed to determine whether impulsivity predicted alcohol use in the form of a continuous index comprising variables related to intake and consequences of use.

Results

Significantly greater impulsivity was not evident in heavy, standard binge, high binge, harmful, or hazardous alcohol drinkers as compared to controls, regardless of the criteria employed to categorise these at-risk drinkers. Neither choice impulsivity nor reduced response inhibition significantly predicted the alcohol use index.

Conclusions

While results could be attributed to the online nature of this research, it is possible more sensitive measures of behavioural impulsivity are required when assessing non-dependent drinkers.