Personality traits and negative consequences associated with binge drinking and marijuana use in college students

ABSTRACTBackground: Binge drinking is common in college students, and many drink in quantities greater than the standard definition of bingeing. Combined use of additional substances, particularly marijuana, is also common.Objectives: Increased impulsivity and sensation seeking are risk factors for bingeing, and this study was designed to characterize their association with extreme compared to standard bingeing, as well as with combined bingeing and marijuana use. Negative consequences of alcohol use were also investigated.Methods: Self-report personality measures and a measure of the negative consequences of alcohol use were given to a sample of 221 college students (109 females) sorted into a control and 4 binge groups based upon their patterns of bingeing and marijuana use. Narrowly defined, non-overlapping measures of impulsivity and sensation seeking were analyzed to assess the association of these personality measures with substance-use patterns and negative consequences of bingeing.Results: Standar...