A State Model of Negative Urgency: Do Momentary Reports of Emotional Impulsivity Reflect Global Self-Report?

Negative urgency is a trait that is a risk factor for a range of psychopathology. Yet, little research has tested whether global self-report measures of negative urgency truly reflect a heightened association between real-world negative emotions and impulsive behaviors. In a sample of young adults (N = 222) assessed 3 times per day for 10 days, we tested whether negative emotions were associated with multiple facets of impulsivity at the state-level, and whether those associations were moderated by global self-report of negative urgency. Our findings suggest a robust within-person association between negative affect and acting on impulse. However, global self-report of negative urgency did not moderate any emotion-impulsivity association we tested.