Explorations of Self-Efficacy: Personal Narratives as Qualitative Data in the Analysis of Smoking Cessation Efforts

Abstract

Research has found that an individual's perceived self-efficacy, supported by goals and the acceptance of potential obstacles, has the ability to assist in behaviour modification. By examining the narratives of cardiovascular patients undergoing smoking cessation counselling, this study highlights factors that individuals communicate in their narratives regarding changes to self-efficacy throughout the process of smoking cessation. Narrative analysis is used to establish those factors that cardiovascular patients assert to be the motivating or impeding factors in their smoking cessation efforts, particularly in relation to their initial readiness to quit smoking. The study's findings illustrate the social, physical and psychological barriers and motivating factors that exist for cardiovascular patients in the process of quitting smoking. The current study supplements past research illustrating that in-hospital programs are among the most influential smoking intervention strategies because they can be tailored to each patient's specific health problems and personal and social circumstances. The study concludes that the relationship formed between patients and intervention specialists can assist in raising an individual's self-efficacy to end an addictive behaviour.

An Evidence-Based Cessation Strategy Using Rural Smokers’ Experiences with Tobacco

“…Personal narratives have been used successfully with vulnerable populations to decrease tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use 15–17 and show promise as an intervention to reach rural smokers to motivate them to think about quitting. 18 Personal narratives from members of vulnerable populations are successful at encouraging behavior change because other members of those populations can more easily relate to the given message 19 and have been shown to be an acceptable, culturally competent and effective way to reach populations to promote healthy behaviors. 14, 20 …”

“…The immediate aim was to identify themes and develop messages based upon the collected personal narratives which could be used in designing messages and interventions to motivate smokers to make a quit attempt. 18 Data gathered in this research could potentially form the basis for culturally sensitive, cost-effective population-based tobacco cessation interventions designed to reach rural smokers. The ultimate goal is to improve health outcomes though decreased tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke in this high-risk population.…”

Evaluating a Brief Measure of Social Self-Efficacy among U.S. Adolescents

“…Studies suggest the usefulness of analyzing self-efficacy has merit across various human dynamic improvement situations including (but not limited to) learning or education-based interests of students in preschool (Hoskovcová, 2006) or high school (aydin & Uzuntiryaki, 2009) to graduate education (Rishel & Majewski, 2009), career performance or intervention interests in fields such as nursing (Lee & Ko, 2010) and law enforcement (tanigoshi, Kontos, & Remley, 2008), analysis of factors in behavioral adjustment or changing endeavors such as smoking cessation (Rollins & terrion, 2010), and medical applications such as gaining further understanding of quality of life in chronic pain patients (Börsbo, Gerdle, & Peolsson, 2010). The breadth of studies investigating self-efficacy is clearly large; nevertheless, currently not all facets of self-efficacy have been analyzed.…”

Attitudes about Cigarette Smoking, Perceived Consequences of Smoking, and Seeking Assistance with Cessation among Black and White Cigarette Smokers: A Qualitative Study

“…This study is aimed at providing an initial understanding of the attitudes associated with smoking and smoking cessation and helping identify potential areas for further investigation regarding racial differences. Understanding smoking-related attitudes and possible differences between Black and White individuals who smoke is a vital first step to evaluating the extent of these differences and how they might impact treatment and eventually translate to new therapeutic approaches [ 26 ]. Narrative analysis is one of the most widely used forms of qualitative analysis, and it has been used successfully to identify factors affecting individuals' success in smoking cessation, including the importance of perceived self-efficacy, expectations of treatment effectiveness, and ambivalence about change [ 26 , 27 ].…”

“…Understanding smoking-related attitudes and possible differences between Black and White individuals who smoke is a vital first step to evaluating the extent of these differences and how they might impact treatment and eventually translate to new therapeutic approaches [ 26 ]. Narrative analysis is one of the most widely used forms of qualitative analysis, and it has been used successfully to identify factors affecting individuals' success in smoking cessation, including the importance of perceived self-efficacy, expectations of treatment effectiveness, and ambivalence about change [ 26 , 27 ]. To our knowledge, this is the first qualitative investigation of consequences of smoking, perceptions of and strategies for managing cravings and withdrawal, and thoughts or feelings about quitting and seeking assistance.…”