a Department of Psychology , University of Rhode Island , Kingston , RI , USA.
J Dual Diagn. 2019 Apr-Jun;15(2):95-104. doi: 10.1080/15504263.2019.1583398. Epub 2019 Apr 21.
Alcohol misuse is prevalent and clinically significant among college students. Psychological distress is one factor that has been found to predict alcohol misuse in this population. However, relatively few investigations examined the association of psychological distress to alcohol misuse or its underlying mechanisms among students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The present study examined whether impulsivity explains the relation between psychological distress and alcohol misuse in this population using structural equation modeling. Participants were 287 undergraduate students attending an HBCU in the southern United States ( = 22.5, 66.3% female, 93.7% Black). Impulsivity was found to significantly mediate the association of psychological distress to alcohol misuse, such that higher levels of psychological distress were associated with greater impulsivity which, in turn, was related to more alcohol misuse. Further analyses indicated that attentional impulsivity significantly mediated the association of psychological distress to alcohol misuse. These findings suggest the utility of targeting impulsivity in interventions aimed at preventing and reducing alcohol misuse among college students attending HBCUs who experience psychological distress.
酗酒在大学生中普遍存在且具有临床意义。心理困扰是预测这一人群酗酒的因素之一。然而，在研究以历史上的黑人学院和大学（HBCUs）为基础的学生中，很少有调查研究心理困扰与酗酒之间的关系或其潜在机制。本研究使用结构方程模型检验了冲动性是否可以解释该人群中心理困扰与酗酒之间的关系。参与者为 287 名在美国南部的 HBCU 就读的本科生（ = 22.5，66.3%为女性，93.7%为黑人）。研究发现，冲动性显著中介了心理困扰与酗酒之间的关系，即较高水平的心理困扰与更高的冲动性相关，而冲动性又与更多的酗酒有关。进一步的分析表明，注意力冲动性显著中介了心理困扰与酗酒之间的关系。这些发现表明，在针对 HBCU 中经历心理困扰的大学生的预防和减少酗酒的干预措施中，针对冲动性进行干预具有一定的效用。
