Behavioral Undercontrol: A Multifaceted Concept and Its Relationship to Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders

This chapter reviews research on alternative facets of behavioral undercontrol (e.g., disinhibition, impulsivity, sensation seeking) represented across rich and diverse literatures such as temperament, personality, childhood disorders, adolescent deviance, externalizing behaviors, and clinical disorders (e.g., substance abuse disorders, antisocial personality disorder). Research in the behavior genetic literature has focused on the identification of a common underlying general liability factor for behavioral undercontrol (or disinhibition) that is largely, but not exclusively, influenced by genetic variation. Research from other areas of study, including genomics and neuroscience, have identified some specificity of relationships between particular genes and neural circuits with different facets of behavioral undercontrol. A more integrative approach to the study of behavioral undercontrol is suggested that includes both general and specific factors within a multilevel, developmentally focused framework of behavioral, cognitive, and affective self-regulation.

Factor Structure and Invariance of the Behavioral Undercontrol Questionnaire

The construct of behavioral undercontrol is often assessed as a potential risk factor in studies of health-risk behaviors, but few studies have examined psychometric properties of measures of behavioral undercontrol. The present study tested the factor structure of the Behavioral Undercontrol Questionnaire (BUQ), a 20-item self-report measure, across gender and racial/ethnic groups, using a college sample (N = 648). We hypothesized that the factor structure would vary by both gender and race/ethnicity. A single-factor solution was identified and confirmed within each group. However, analyses yielded differences across gender and racial/ethnic groups. Findings support the overall validity of the BUQ, but also suggest that caution should be exercised in making comparisons across gender and racial/ethnic groups. These data also highlight the importance of assessing the psychometric properties of measures of behavioral undercontrol and other externalizing constructs.

Correlates of MMPI-A Substance Abuse Scales

This study evaluated the correlates of 16 scales for the identification of substance abuse with the adolescent form of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-A). As predicted, the scales that were previously validated with adolescents in treatment for substance abuse (i.e., the Alcohol/Drug Problem Proneness scale, or PRO; the Alcohol/Drug Problem Acknowledgment scale, or ACK; the MacAndrew scale, or MAC-R; the Substance Abuse Proclivity scale, or SAP; and the Psychopathy scale, or PSP) were reliably and positively correlated with therapists' ratings of behavioral undercontrol and substance abuse and negatively correlated with ratings of behavioral overcontrol. There were few reliable correlates for the scales that had not been previously validated with adolescents in treatment for substance abuse, and these scales were not reliably correlated with therapists' ratings of substance abuse.