Relations among Behavioral and Questionnaire Measures of Impulsivity in a Sample of Suicide Attempters

Despite the focus on impulsivity within suicide research, it remains unclear the extent to which impulsivity assessments, that purportedly tap similar constructs, show significant overlap in samples of individuals with suicidal behaviors. In a sample of 69 suicide attempters, we took a multitrait, multimethod approach to examine the relation among various questionnaire and behavioral assessments of impulsivity facets. With the exception of urgency and go–stop performance, there was little evidence of concordance between questionnaire and behavioral measures. These findings suggest researchers cannot presume that measures of “impulsivity” assess similar psychological processes and that more nuanced terminology is needed.