Abstract
Five different facets or domains of impulsivity (lack of Perseverance, lack of Premeditation, Sensation Seeking, Positive and Negative Urgency) have been detected in undergraduate students by means of a short, 20-item version of the Impulsive Behavior Scale UPPS-P. The present cross-sectional study examined the psychometric properties of a Brazilian version of this short scale (SUPPS-P) in a non-clinical sample of 510 individuals with a larger age range (10–72 years) and from varying socioeconomic strata (SES). We also investigated: (a) differential item functioning according to age, sex and socioeconomic status; (b) whether these demographic factors affected participants’ responses (population heterogeneity); and (c) if using scores directly derived from respondents’ answers (raw scores) reflected the 5 distinguishable impulsiveness domains out of the structural equation modeling environment (bifactor model). We showed that the short UPPS-P version replicated factor structures, internal consistency across domains and inter-scale correlations found in prior studies, and confirmed the psychometric separability of the 5 impulsiveness domains. Only three out of the 20 items showed differential item functioning. Higher Positive and Negative Urgency and lack of Premeditation were reported by men and impulsiveness decreases with age in all domains except lack of Premeditation. SES did not influence results. The viability of using raw scores to assess the five domains was not confirmed via bifactor modeling. The use of a general composite score was psychometrically acceptable. We conclude that, in the structural equation modeling environment, the SUPPS-P is a reliable instrument to assess multiple impulsivity domains in non-clinical community samples in different cultural settings. However, out of this statistical environment, viability was only found for a general factor of impulsivity.
Highlights
Impulsive behavior involves acting without delay, reflection, voluntary direction or control in response to stimuli (Medical Subject Headings, MeSH Unique ID: D0071751)
UPPS is an acronym composed of letters that represent each of its impulsiveness domains: (1) Negative Urgency, the tendency to commit rash or regrettable actions as a result of negative affect; (2) Premeditation, the tendency not to reflect on the consequences of one’s actions; (3) Perseverance, or difficulty in staying focused on hard of tedious tasks; and (4) Sensations Seeking, the tendency to seek new and exciting experiences
Regarding the models proposed by Cyders et al (2014), with no correction for demographic characteristics, we found that Model 1, with all 20 short UPPS-P (SUPPS-P) items loading onto a single “impulsivity” factor, fit data poorly [χ2(170) = 2884.743, p-value < 0.001, RMSEA = 0.176 (90%CI = 0.171 to 0.182), CFI = 0.567, TLI = 0.516] (Figure 1)
Summary
Impulsive behavior involves acting without delay, reflection, voluntary direction or control in response to stimuli (Medical Subject Headings, MeSH Unique ID: D0071751). The UPPS-P is a relatively long scale containing 59 items, a somewhat inappropriate characteristic if testing time is short and for populations who tire and become distracted, such as youngsters and people with low socioeconomic status/schooling To circumvent these limitations, reduced versions of the scale have been proposed, such as the one by Cyders et al (2014), called short UPPS-P (SUPPS-P). 1https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/?term=impulsivity comparable factor structure, internal consistency and subscale inter-correlations, with only a minimal loss of shared variance (Cyders et al, 2014) Such a short scale that allows the identification of separable impulsivity traits is of great interest for research and clinical purposes worldwide. We studied if it is reliable and viable to use such scores out of the structural equation modeling environment (bifactor modeling)
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