Moderating Effect of Gender on the Relationship Between Sensation Seeking-Impulsivity and Substance Use in Adolescents

ABSTRACT

This study examined the moderating effect of gender on the predictive relationships between a measure of sensation seeking and impulsivity and four adolescent substance use outcomes (monthly alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use and number of times drunk). Four hundred twenty Canadian secondary school students participated in the current study. A series of moderated hierarchical multiple regression analyses was used to examine relationships among study variables. Main-effect relationships were consistently found for sensation seeking-impulsivity with each outcome, but not for gender. However, gender was found to moderate the relationship between sensation seeking-impulsivity and alcohol use, suggesting that these relationships are more complex than previous literature suggests. Future implications are discussed in light of these results.

KEYWORDS:

• Substance use
• adolescent
• sensation seeking
• impulsivity
• gender