Excessive drinking in college leads to serious harms, but students who use protective behavioral strategies (PBS) avoid negative consequences by drinking in a safer manner. This study aimed to increase the content validity of the Serious Harm Reduction (SHR) subscale of the most widely used measure of PBS, the Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale (PBSS: Martens et al., 2005). An initial item pool was developed from literature on college student drinking, existing lists of drinking control strategies, and an online pilot survey of college students (N = 1,832). Items were also evaluated by focus groups of experts and members of the target population. Next, 1,376 students (57.9% women; Mage = 18.5 years; 86.3% White) completed questionnaires online. A subset (n = 170; 12.4%) completed a second survey 4-6 weeks later to examine test-retest reliability and criterion-related validity. The remaining students (n = 1,206) were divided into equal development and validation samples. Analyses included exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the development sample, factor structure replication, and gender invariance testing in the validity sample. Results of this process produced the PBSS-20, with an expanded SHR scale of eight items. The revised SHR scale demonstrated improved internal consistency and was associated with a broader range of alcohol-related negative consequences at follow-up. Given its focus on reducing serious harms, the SHR scale is arguably the most clinically relevant PBSS factor, and those who use this measure will benefit from the expanded breadth of SHR content and improved psychometric properties of the PBSS-20.

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often report experiencing several negative emotions simultaneously, an indicator of "undifferentiated" negative affect. The current study examined the relationship between undifferentiated negative affect and impulsivity. Participants with a current BPD (n = 67) or depressive disorder (DD; n = 38) diagnosis carried an electronic diary for 28 days, reporting on emotions and impulsivity when randomly prompted (up to 6 times per day). Undifferentiated negative affect was quantified using momentary intraclass correlation coefficients, which indicated how consistently negative emotion items were rated across fear, hostility, and sadness subscales. Undifferentiated negative affect at the occasion-level, day-level, and across 28 days was used to predict occasion-level impulsivity. Multilevel modeling was used to test the hypothesis that undifferentiated negative emotion would be a significant predictor of momentary impulsivity above and beyond levels of overall negative affect. Undifferentiated negative affect at the occasion and day levels were significant predictors of occasion-level impulsivity, but undifferentiated negative affect across the 28-day study period was only marginally significant. Results did not differ depending on BPD or DD status, though individuals with BPD did report significantly greater momentary impulsivity and undifferentiated negative affect. Undifferentiated negative affect may increase risk for impulsivity among individuals with BPD and depressive disorders, and the current data suggest that this process can be relatively immediate as well as cumulative over the course of a day. This research supports the consideration of undifferentiated negative affect as a transdiagnostic construct, but one that may be particularly relevant for those with BPD.

Objective:The present study sought to inform models of risk for drugged driving through empirically identifying patterns of marijuana use, alcohol use, and related driving behaviors. perceived dangerousness and consequences of drugged driving were evaluated as putative influences on risk patterns.Method:We used latent profile analysis of survey responses from 897 college students to identify patterns of substance use and drugged driving. We tested the hypotheses that low perceived danger and low perceived likelihood of negative consequences of drugged driving would identify individuals with higher-risk patterns.Results:Findings from the latent profile analysis indicated that a fourprofile model provided the best model fit. Low-level engagers had low rates of substance use and drugged driving. Alcohol-centric engagers had higher rates of alcohol use but low rates of marijuana/simultaneous use and low rates of driving after substance use. Concurrent engagers had higher rates of marijuana and alcohol use, si...