Addictive Behaviors 26 (2001) 115 ± 120

Brief report
Behavioral characteristics related to substance abuse and
risk-taking, sensation-seeking, anxiety sensitivity, and
self-reinforcement$
Mervyn K. Wagner
University of South Carolina, Psychology Department, Columbia, SC 29208, USA

Abstract

Given the multitude of negative outcomes associated with substance abuse and other risk-taking
behaviors, the current study sought to investigate sensation seeking, anxiety sensitivity, and self-
reinforcement as they relate to participation in high-risk behaviors with 155 undergraduate students.
The measures were the Reckless Behavior Questionnaire, Sensation Seeking Scale, Anxiety
Sensitivity Index, Heiby Self-Reinforcement Questionnaire, and a sample of items from the treatment
factor of the Substance Abuse Attitude Survey. Significant multivariate effects were attributable to
sensation seeking and anxiety sensitivity. Sensation seeking and anxiety sensitivity were significant
predictors of substance abuse. The model significantly predicted risky sexual behavior with a positive
relationship between sensation seeking and risky sexual behavior. High anxiety-sensitivity scores were
associated with a greater reported incidence of high-risk sexual practices. Participants highest in
sensation seeking were most likely to engage in reckless driving, with male incidence being greater
than for females. An unexpected finding was that anxiety sensitivity negatively correlated with
substance abuse. D 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Substance abuse; Risk taking; Sensation seeking; Anxiety sensitivity; Self-reinforcement

The recent trend toward preventative health care is leading to a greater public awareness of
the incidence of high-risk behavior among certain populations, especially for adolescents and
young adults. Among the most prevalent concerns for the health and safety of this population
are behaviors involving drug and alcohol abuse, unsafe sexual practices, and reckless driving.
In a recent survey of undergraduate students, 36% of the sample reported driving while
drinking (West, Moskal, Dziuban, & Rumbough, 1996). Wulfert and Wan (1993) asked

$
Many thanks to Jennifer O'Connor who made many contributions to this study.

0306-4603/01/$ ± see front matter D 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 0 6 - 4 6 0 3 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 7 1 - X
116 M.K. Wagner / Addictive Behaviors 26 (2001) 115±120

undergraduate students to provide information regarding their sexual behavior and found that
70% of them used condoms inconsistently or not at all. The primary objective of the current
study is to explore the relationship of various personality and demographic characteristics to
substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, reckless driving, and theft and vandalism.
Sensation seeking positively correlates with participation in high-risk behaviors (Zucker-
man, 1979), with high sensation-seekers more likely than low sensation-seekers to participate
in arousing and sensory stimulating activities such as with sex, drugs, alcohol, smoking, and
eating; and to a more intense level than low sensation-seekers. Arnett (1996) found that
among high school and college students, sensation seeking significantly related to sexual
behavior, drug use, reckless automobile driving, and theft and vandalism. The Sensation
Seeking Scale (Zuckerman, 1979) was found to discriminate between those who do not and
those who do use drugs (Segal & Singer, 1976).
Anxiety sensitivity is defined as ``concern about the real or imagined consequences of
anxiety'' (Reiss & McNally, 1985). Stewart, Peterson, and Pihl (1995) found that among
female college students, individuals with high anxiety-sensitivity use more alcohol per week
and drink to excess more often than low anxiety-sensitivity controls. Sensation seeking and
anxiety sensitivity have both been found to be positively correlated with the use of alcohol
and some drugs, but the author knows of no research regarding the relationship between
anxiety sensitivity and sexual and other risk behaviors.
The choice to engage in substance abuse, high-risk sexual behavior, reckless driving, and
theft and vandalism is within an individual's personal control. Elements of self-control are
often included as components of prevention and treatment protocols for eliminating unwanted
behaviors. Self-reinforcement is defined as ``the process of establishing and controlling overt
and covert positive consequences of one's own behavior'' (Heiby, 1983, p. 1304). If self-
reinforcement is a component of self-control, it is likely to have some influence on the choice
to participate in, or to refrain from, other such behaviors. This study was also interested in
investigating how attitudes toward treatment for substance abuse related to personality
variables, self-reinforcement, and risk-taking behavior. For example, if an individual feels
that alcoholism is purely genetically determined, is he or she more or less likely to engage in
the consumption of alcohol?
The hypotheses tested for this study were: (1) High sensation-seeking individuals are
likely to report engaging in more substance use and other risk-taking behaviors than low
sensation-seeking individuals; (2) Individuals high in anxiety sensitivity are likely to
report more substance use and fewer risk-taking behaviors than low anxiety-sensitivity
individuals; and (3) There will be a negative correlation between sensation seeking and
anxiety sensitivity.

1. Participants and procedures

Participants consisted of 155 undergraduates; 44 males (28%), 104 females (67%), and 7
participants who did not report their gender (4%). The ethnic demographics of the sample were
87 Caucasian/European Americans (56%), 39 African Americans (25%), 7 Asian Americans
(5%), 2 Hispanic Americans (1%), and 20 participants (13%) who did not provide their ethnic
 M.K. Wagner / Addictive Behaviors 26 (2001) 115±120 117

identity. Students participated on a voluntary basis or in exchange for extra credit in an

academic class, in groups of approximately 25, with the measures in counterbalanced order.

2. Measures

The Sensation Seeking Scale-Form V (SSS; Zuckerman 1979) is a 40-item scale, with each
of the items having two possible responses relative to a preference for sensation seeking. The
SSS was found to discriminate between those who did and did not use marijuana, LSD, and
amphetamines (Segal & Singer, 1976). Internal reliability scores were in the range of .83 to
.86 with the retest reliability .94 (Zuckerman, 1979).
The Reiss-Epstein-Gursky Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; Peterson & Reiss, 1987)
consists of 16 statements, each describing a negative consequence of experiencing anxiety,
to which the subject rates his/her degree of agreement with the score determined by summing
the positive responses. The internal reliability for the ASI has been estimated at .88 (Peterson
& Reiss, 1987), with a test-retest correlation of .71 (Reiss, 1991).
The Heiby Self-Reinforcement Questionnaire (HSRQ; Heiby, 1982) contains 30 true/false
questions designed to assess stated propensity toward the use of self-reinforcement. Test-
retest reliability was .92. The HSRQ has been found to correlate with self-praise …r ˆ :69†
(Heiby, 1983) and with various other modes of self-reinforcement (correlations ranging from
.72±.79) (Heiby, 1983).
The Reckless Behavior Questionnaire (RBQ; Arnett, 1996) consists of 16 items for which
response options are presented in the context of frequency of engaging in a given behavior,
for example, once, 2±5 times, 6±10 times, and more than 10 times. Test-retest reliability
averaged above .80 (Arnett, 1996). A 14-item version of the scale designed for college
students was administered to participants in the current study. The RBQ items were clustered
into four groups: those pertaining to alcohol and drug use …n ˆ 3†, risky sexual behavior
…n ˆ 3†, reckless driving …n ˆ 5†, and theft and vandalism …n ˆ 3†.
The Substance Abuse Attitude Survey (SAAS; Chappel, Veach, & Krug, 1985) is a
questionnaire with 50 Likert-type items intended to appraise attitudes toward drug use and
abuse. Jenkins, Fisher, and Applegate (1990) performed a factor analysis on the SAAS and
created a version consisting of 39 items and three factors. One factor relates to attitudes
toward treatment process and predicted outcome for substance problems (e.g., ``Alcoholism is
a treatable illness''), but only 5 of the 11 items were of sufficient interest to be included in the
current study. The internal consistency was .75, and test-retest reliability was .65.

3. Results

Analyses were conducted using SPSS using an alpha level of .05 for all statistical tests.
Pearson product-moment correlations were computed for all of the variables (Table 1). A
selected grouping of items on the risk scale reflects behaviors reported frequently by
participants and/or are potential targets for interventions. Using the General Linear Model
(GLM) procedure, a model was constructed to predict the dependent variables assessing risk-
118 M.K. Wagner / Addictive Behaviors 26 (2001) 115±120

Table 1
Intercorrelations between risk-taking behaviors and sensation seeking, anxiety sensitivity, and self-reinforce-
ment scores
Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Substance abuse 1.00 .22** .35** .29** ÿ .21* .01 .59**
Risky sexual behavior 1.00 .32** .18* .13 .13 .29**
Reckless driving 1.00 .23** .00 ÿ .09 .33**
Theft & vandalism 1.00 ÿ .03 ÿ .05 .27**
Anxiety sensitivity 1.00 ÿ .23** ÿ .06
Self-reinforcement 1.00 ÿ .11
Sensation seeking 1.00

Note. Number of participants = 155.

* p < .05, two-tailed;
** p < .01, two-tailed.

taking behaviors: substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, reckless driving, and theft and
vandalism. Scores from the SSS, ASI, and HSRQ were entered as predictors in the model
with gender and ethnicity entered as fixed factors. According to Box's M, it could not be
assumed that the covariance matrices of the dependent variables were equal across groups,
F…30; 4744† ˆ 2:92; p < :001: After removing ethnicity and including only gender as fixed
factor, the model did meet the assumption. Refer to Table 2 for descriptive statistics of the
dependent variables by gender.
According to Wilks' Lambda criteria, the overall model was significant, F(4,143) = 8.54,
p < .001 with multivariate effects attributable to sensation seeking, F(4,143) = 24.89, p < .001,
and anxiety sensitivity, F(4,143) = 3.22, p < .05. Gender made a marginally significant
contribution to the model, F(4,143) = 2.40, p = .05, while self-reinforcement was not a
significant contributor, F(4,143) = 2.11, p = .08. The model significantly predicted substance
abuse (F = 24.86, p < .001), reckless driving (F = 6.52, p < .001), risky sexual behavior (F =
5.69, p < .001), and theft and vandalism (F = 4.54, p < .01). Levene's test of equality of error
was conducted, F = 6.23, p < .05, however this variable did not meet the assumptions, and
should be interpreted with caution.

Table 2
Descriptive statistics for gender and risk-taking behavior
Variables Gender M SD n
Risky sexual behavior Male 5.1818 1.7155 44
Female 5.0288 1.4377 104
Substance abuse Male 5.1818 1.9915 44
Female 4.8750 1.7443 104
Reckless driving Male 9.2500** 2.3140 44
Female 8.1346** 2.0244 104
Theft & vandalism Male 3.7500 1.4326 44
Female 3.4327 1.0406 104

Note. The higher the score, the greater the reported incidence of risk behavior. Significant difference between
gender groups found only for Reckless driving.
** p < .01, two-tailed.
 M.K. Wagner / Addictive Behaviors 26 (2001) 115±120 119

The model explained 41% of the total variance in substance abuse with sensation seeking,
F(1,143) = 88.99, p < .001, and anxiety sensitivity F(1,143) = 5.17, p < .05, as significant
predictors of substance abuse. Participants high in sensation seeking were more likely to
report using alcohol and/or drugs. Based on prior research, a significant positive relationship
was anticipated between anxiety sensitivity and substance abuse, but for this population there
was a negative correlation, r ˆ ÿ:21; p ˆ :01 suggesting that participants high in anxiety
sensitivity were less likely to abuse substances than those reporting low anxiety-sensitivity.
There was a positive relationship between sensation seeking and risky sexual behavior,
F…1; 143† ˆ 14:73; p < :001; r2 ˆ :14 with high anxiety-sensitivity scores associated with a
greater reported incidence of high-risk sexual practices, F…1; 143† ˆ 6:54; p < :05.
The model accounted for 15% of the variance in reckless driving with participants highest
in sensation seeking most likely to engage in reckless driving, F…1; 143† ˆ 16:14; p < :001
with male participants reporting a greater incidence than females, F…1; 143† ˆ 8:42; p < :01.
High sensation-seeking was the only significant predictor of theft and vandalism,
F…1; 143† ˆ 11:40; p < :001; r2 ˆ :09:
Propensity toward self-reinforcement did not play a significant role in the prediction of any
of the risk-taking behaviors. Using the GLM procedure a second model was constructed to
predict attitudes toward the treatment of substance abuse, but none were statistically
significant, F…4; 143† ˆ 1:22; p ˆ :32:

4. Discussion

High sensation-seeking scores were associated with all four domains of risk-taking
behavior. By definition, sensation seeking is ``the need for varied, novel, and complex
sensations and experiences and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake
of such experience'' (Zuckerman, 1979). The significant relationships found between
sensation seeking and substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, reckless driving, and theft
and vandalism support the validity of the sensation-seeking construct. Contrary to past
literature describing an increased incidence of substance abuse among high anxiety-
sensitivity individuals, this study found a negative relationship suggesting that the self-
medication hypothesis does not apply to the undergraduates in our sample. To the author's
knowledge, previous research that has found an increased incidence of substance abuse
among individuals with high ASI scores was with individuals with diagnoses of various
anxiety disorders, typically panic disorder and agoraphobia, while the present study used a
nonclinical population. Substance use and abuse in the college environment may be different
than the same behavior in other environments.
Sensation seeking did not correlate with either self-reinforcement or anxiety sensitivity,
even though a negative relationship might have been expected given that sensation seekers
seek stimulation and physiological arousal, while individuals high in anxiety sensitivity fear
and avoid physiological arousal. It appears, however, that the constructs are independent of
one another. The reported use of self-reinforcement correlated negatively with anxiety
sensitivity. One pathway to consider in future research is whether the use of self-reinforce-
ment might have treatment implications for the control of anxiety sensitivity. This relation-
120 M.K. Wagner / Addictive Behaviors 26 (2001) 115±120

ship might also reflect a more fundamental personality difference between self-critical and
self-praising individuals.

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