Daily sensation-seeking and urgency in young adults: Examining associations with alcohol use and self-defined risky behaviors

PURPOSE

To examine the dynamic expression of sensation-seeking and urgency in daily life and the implications for alcohol use and risk-taking during young adulthood.

METHODS

Daily diary surveys were administered to young adults (n = 77) aged 18-25 years every evening for 21 days to assess day's sensation-seeking, urgency, risk-taking, and alcohol use.

RESULTS

Days of higher than usual sensation-seeking are also days of higher than usual risk-taking and are more likely to be alcohol use days than days of lower than usual sensation-seeking. Day's urgency was not associated with day's alcohol use or risk-taking. We extracted 10 themes from self-reports of the day's riskiest behavior: transportation (29.9%), social (22.8%), recreation (17.4%), work (14.8%), school (13.5%), food (9.5%), sleep (9.2%), substance use (5.8%), other (5.2%), and jaywalking (1.5%), and 14.6% of self-reported risky behaviors were considered threatening to safety, health, or wellbeing.

CONCLUSIONS

Risks taken during daily life have mostly positive outcomes and a minority represent threats to safety, health, and wellbeing. Risk-taking and alcohol use in young adult's daily lives is more likely to be driven by the desire to experience novel and exciting experiences than by rash action.