Associations between Psychosocial Well-being, Stressful Life Events and Emotion-driven Impulsiveness in European Adolescents

Knowing the extent to which mental well-being and stressful life events during adolescence contribute to personalitycharacteristics related to risk-taking behaviors, such as emotion-driven impulsiveness, is highly relevant for the developmentof health promotion measures. This study examined whether psychosocial well-being and different stressful life events areassociated with emotion-driven impulsiveness. In total, 3,031 adolescents (52% girls; Mage = 13.6 years) were included fromthe I. Family Study, a cross-sectional examination on lifestyle-related behaviors conducted across eight European countriesin 2013/14. Linear mixed-effects regression models showed that higher psychosocial well-being was associated with loweremotion-driven impulsiveness independent of socio-demographic, health-related, and parental variables. A higher number ofstressful life events was associated with higher emotion-driven impulsiveness. Psychosocial well-being and stressful lifeevents need to be further considered in the development and tailoring of health promotion strategies that aim to reduceemotion-driven impulsiveness