Background: Traumatic exposure may modulate the expression of impulsive behavioral dispositions and
change the implementation of emotion regulation strategies associated with depressive mood. Past studies
resulted in only limited comprehension of these relationships, especially because they failed to consider
impulsivity as a multifactorial construct.
Objective: Based on Whiteside and Lynam’s multidimensional model that identifies four distinct dispositional
facets of impulsive-like behaviors, namely urgency, (lack of) premeditation, (lack of) perseverance, and
sensation seeking (UPPS), the current study used a sample of community volunteers to investigate whether an
interaction exists between impulsivity facets and lifetime trauma exposure in predicting cognitive emotion
regulation and depressive mood.
Methods: Ninety-three adults completed questionnaires measuring lifetime trauma exposure, impulsivity,
cognitive emotion regulation, and depressive mood.
Results: Results showed that trauma-exposed participants with a strong disposition toward urgency (predisposition
to act rashly in intense emotional contexts) tended to use fewer appropriate cognitive emotion
regulation strategies than other individuals. Unexpectedly, participants lacking in perseverance (predisposition
to have difficulties concentrating on demanding tasks) used more appropriate emotion regulation
strategies if they had experienced traumatic events during their life than if they had not. Emotion regulation
mediated the path between these two impulsivity facets and depressive mood.
Conclusions: Together, these findings suggest that impulsivity has a differential impact on emotion regulation
and depressive mood depending on lifetime exposure to environmental factors, especially traumatic events.