Motives for smoking and their correlates in clients attending Stop Smoking treatment services

Abstract

This study investigated smokers' ratings of putative smoking motives and how these relate to smoking patterns, withdrawal symptoms, and short-term abstinence in clients attending smokers' clinics. Data were collected from 2,727 clients from two London Stop Smoking Services that offered behavioral support combined with pharmacotherapy. On a scale of 1 to 5, stress relief (M = 3.9), boredom relief (3.7), and enjoyment (3.6) were rated highest. Uses as an aid to concentration (2.9), for relief of withdrawal discomfort (2.8), and as an aid to socialization (2.8) received moderate ratings. Weight control was rated low (2.0). These ratings were found to be largely independent of each other. Ratings of enjoyment, boredom relief, improvement in concentration, and relief of withdrawal discomfort were positively correlated with daily cigarette consumption (p<.001). Ratings of smoking for withdrawal relief, enjoyment, improvement in concentration, stress relief, and boredom relief were positively correlated with nicotine dependence as measured by the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (p<.001). Strength of urges to smoke and time spent with urges to smoke in the first week of abstinence were positively correlated with smoking for withdrawal relief, to stay alert, to improve concentration, and with enjoyment of smoking (p<.01). Relapse to smoking within 4 weeks was not associated with ratings of any of the smoking motives, including enjoyment. Although correlated with a measure of dependence, no strong connection appears to exist between relapse and any of the smoking motives, suggesting that the mechanisms underlying nicotine dependence lie at a deeper level, outside the ability of smokers to be introspective regarding their motivations.

Reasons for Smoking Among Tri-Ethnic Daily and Nondaily Smokers

“…Women had higher scores on Tension Reduction/Relaxation and there were no gender differences on Addictive Smoking. This is consistent with previous research that women tend to be more likely to report smoking as a coping strategy including stress or negative affect reduction (Fidler & West, 2009;Gregor, Zvolensky, Bernstein, Marshall, & Yartz, 2007;Johnson, Stewart, Zvolensky, & Steeves, 2009;McEwen, West, & McRobbie, 2008;SanchezJohnsen, Ahluwalia, Fitzgibbon, & Spring, 2006). However, our finding that men scored higher than women in other RS contrasts with previous research.…”

Motivation for Substance Use: Why Do People Use Alcohol, Tobacco and Marijuana?

“…enjoyment) and coping (e.g. stress/boredom relief) motives as the highest rated motives for smoking (Fidler & West, 2009), related to daily cigarette consumption (McEwen, West, & McRobbie, 2008), increased levels of alcohol use (Cooper, 1994;Kuntsche et al, 2006b), heavier drinking problems (Bradizza et al, 1999;Carey & Correia, 1997;Cooper et al, 1992), and higher frequency of marijuana use among different populations (Bonn-Miller, Chabrol et al, 2005;Simons et al, 1998Simons et al, , 2000. Those findings are in line with the proposition that substance use motives could be reduced to the negative and positive reinforcement motive dimensions (Battista et al, 2008).…”

“…Results of previous research also showed that social motives were significant determinants of the current smoking status among adolescents (Amin, Amr, & Zaza, 2011;McEwen et al, 2008), and also most adolescents reported drinking for social and sometimes for enhancement motives (Kuntsche et al, 2005), while older persons were less likely to drink for social reasons (Moran & Saliba, 2012).…”

Differences between intermittent and light daily smokers in a population of U.S. military recruits

“…Although self-reported stress seems to be clearly related to reduced smoking abstinence ( Fiore et al, 2008 ), the relationship between boredom relief and relapse to smoking has been inconsistent ( McEwen, West, & McRobbie, 2008 ;Richmond et al, 2006 ), and no studies of the impact of boredomrelated smoking and cessation are noted. Future studies of intermittent and light smokers should consider these situations as Note .…”