Problem Drinking in Young Adults: The Role of Sweet Liking, Novelty Seeking, and Impulsivity (2010)

Undergraduates: Eleanor Steel, Mary Katherine Kelm, Post Doctoral Fellow

Faculty Advisor: Charlotte Boettiger
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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To decrease the occurrence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs), there is value in identifying predictors of problem drinking. Adults with a family history of AUDs are more likely to be classified as a “sweet liker” compared to those with no such history. In an adult clinical population of sweet likers, novelty seeking (NS) scores identified by the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) are an accurate predictor of problem drinking. Moreover, adults with a history of an AUD favor smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards. We tested whether there is a relationship between impulsive decision making and sweet liking, NS or problem drinking in young adults (ages 18-25). Participants (N=109) were recruited using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and completed a sweet taste test to determine sweet liking status, the TPQ to measure NS, the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) to assess problem drinking and a delay discounting task to quantify their impulsive choice ratio (ICR). We found no relationship between NS and ICR [R2=.02; p=.15] and between RAPI scores and ICR [R2=-.01; p=.34] regardless of age and sex. There was no difference in ICR between sweet likers (.66±.04) and sweet dislikers (.63±.04). However, for sweet likers, low AUDIT males are more impulsive (.47±.11) than low AUDIT females (.73±.09, p<.05). Overall, these results suggest there is no relationship between impulsive decision making and problem drinking, NS, or sweet liking.