Attributions for smoking behavior: Comparing smokers with nonsmokers and predicting smokers' cigarette consumption

doi:10.1016/0092-6566(83)90034-X

Journal of Research in Personality

Volume 17, Issue 2, June 1983, Pages 242-255

https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(83)90034-X Get rights and content

Abstract

A revised version of J. H. Coan's (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973, 26, 86–104) Smoking Survey was completed by smokers and nonsmokers in two studies. The Revised Smoking Survey was factor analyzed and discriminant function analysis was used to compare smokers and nonsmokers on the resulting nine smoking motives. Nonsmokers gave significantly more agreement to items on the Revised Smoking Survey comprising the following smoking motives: Sophistication, Health-Nuisance, Addiction, Stimulation, Sensorimotor Pleasure. Smokers gave significantly more agreement than nonsmokers to only one smoking motive: Relaxation. Multiple correlations between smoking motives and selfreported cigarette consumption were .754 (Study 1) and .670 (Study 2). The most important motives predicting cigarette consumption were Addiction and Affective Smoking. Results were related to attributional theories of arousal and to research measuring people's (in)ability to accurately explain their behaviors. It was recommended that cigarette smoking cessation programs should provide smokers with skills for relaxation and for coping with withdrawal.

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The role of cognitive attributions for smoking in subsequent smoking progression and regression among adolescents in China
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Citation Excerpt :
Therefore, a health education message that attempts to dispel the myth that smoking has social benefits would not resonate with this smoker, who believes that he/she smokes to relieve stress. Attribution research has been conducted to address cigarette smoking, a public health problem worldwide, among adolescents (Allbutt, Amos, & Cunningham-Burley, 1995; Aloise-Young, Hennigan, & Graham, 1996; Barton, Chassin, Presson, & Sherman, 1982; Cronan, Conway, & Kaszas, 1991; Kleinke, Staneski, & Meeker, 1983; McGee & Stanton, 1993; Rugkasa et al., 2001; Sarason, Mankowski, Peterson, & Dinh, 1992; Stanton, Mahalski, McGee, & Silva, 1993; Treacy et al., 2007). However, although previous attribution studies have identified self-reported cognitive attributions for smoking, they did not report whether those attributions were truly correlated with actual smoking behaviors, nor did they examine whether the attributions influenced future smoking behaviors.
Previous studies have documented that cognitive attributions are correlated with adolescent smoking. The present study further explored whether cognitive attributions for smoking influenced adolescents' future smoking behaviors, especially transitions to more advanced stages of smoking.
Participants were 12,382 middle and high school students (48.5% males and 51.5% females) in seven large cities in China. They completed two waves of surveys one year apart. Cognitive attributions for smoking and three smoking behavior outcomes (lifetime smoking, past 30-day smoking, and daily smoking) were assessed. Changes in smoking, including progression from lower stages to higher stages and regression from higher stages to lower stages, over a one-year period, were defined longitudinally. Polychotomous logistic regression was used to examine associations between cognitive attributions for smoking and changes in smoking status over one year, adjusting for demographic characteristics and other plausible confounders.
Seven out of eight cognitive attributions for smoking were associated with subsequent smoking behaviors (p < 0.05). Curiosity, autonomy, social image, social belonging, and coping influenced earlier stages of smoking, whereas mental enhancement and engagement influenced later stages of smoking. Curiosity, autonomy, social image, and mental enhancement preceded smoking progression; social belonging prevented smoking regression; and coping and engagement both preceded smoking progression and prevented smoking regression.
This study demonstrates that different cognitive attributions influence smoking at different stages in different ways. These findings could inform smoking prevention and cessation programs targeting Chinese adolescents.
Do cognitive attributions for smoking predict subsequent smoking development?
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Citation Excerpt :
To design more effective smoking prevention and cessation program, it is better to not only understand cognitive attributions and their associations with current smoking behaviors, but also understand their influences on subsequent smoking behaviors and the underlying mechanisms of those influences, so that relevant issues can be addressed in health communication curricula. Most previous attribution studies have been conducted in western countries (Berlin et al., 2003; Eiser, Sutton, & Wober, 1977; Jenks, 1994b; Kleinke et al., 1983; Sarason et al., 1992). Few have been conducted in China, where smoking has caused more than 600 million people, 72% of the total population including 60% of female non-smokers of childbearing age, to be either directly or indirectly exposed to cigarette smoke (Yang et al., 1999).
To develop more effective anti-smoking programs, it is important to understand the factors that influence people to smoke. Guided by attribution theory, a longitudinal study was conducted to investigate how individuals' cognitive attributions for smoking were associated with subsequent smoking development and through which pathways.
Middle and high school students in seven large cities in China (N = 12,382; 48.5% boys and 51.5% girls) completed two annual surveys. Associations between cognitive attributions for smoking and subsequent smoking initiation and progression were tested with multilevel analysis, taking into account plausible moderation effects of gender and baseline smoking status. Mediation effects of susceptibility to smoking were investigated using statistical mediation analysis (MacKinnon, 2008).
Six out of eight tested themes of cognitive attributions were associated with subsequent smoking development. Curiosity (β = 0.11, p < 0.001) and autonomy (β = 0.08, p = 0.019) were associated with smoking initiation among baseline non-smokers. Coping (β = 0.07, p < 0.001) and social image (β = 0.10, p = <.0001) were associated with smoking progression among baseline lifetime smokers. Social image (β = 0.05, p = 0.043), engagement (β = 0.07, p = 0.003), and mental enhancement (β = 0.15, p < 0.001) were associated with smoking progression among baseline past 30-day smokers. More attributions were associated with smoking development among males than among females. Susceptibility to smoking partially mediated most of the associations, with the proportion of mediated effects ranging from 4.3% to 30.8%.
This study identifies the roles that cognitive attributions for smoking play in subsequent smoking development. These attributions could be addressed in smoking prevention programs.
Cognitive attributions for smoking among adolescents in China
2010, Addictive Behaviors
Citation Excerpt :
Several studies have identified cognitive attributions for smoking by asking people directly why they and other people initiate, maintain, or become addicted to smoking (Allbutt, Amos, & Cunningham-Burley, 1995; Rugkasa et al., 2001; Sarason, Mankowski, Peterson, & Dinh, 1992; Treacy et al., 2007). However, most of these studies have not assessed the relative importance of attributions to the individual, and most have not linked cognitive attributions with actual smoking behaviors to determine which are most influential (Kleinke, Staneski, & Meeker, 1983). A comprehensive investigation about cognitive attributions, their relative importance, and their associations with actual smoking behaviors could provide a better understanding about how people rationalize their decisions about smoking, which could be helpful in the design of more effective health communications for smoking cessation and prevention.
To design more effective health communication messages for smoking cessation and prevention, it is important to understand people's own perceptions of the factors that influence their decisions to smoke. Studies have examined cognitive attributions for smoking in Western countries but not in the Chinese cultural context. In a study of 14,434 Chinese adolescents, exploratory factor analysis grouped 17 cognitive attributions into 8 factors: curiosity, coping, social image, social belonging, engagement, autonomy, mental enhancement, and weight control. The factors were ranked based on the participants' self-reports of importance and by the strength of their associations with smoking behavior. Among all smokers, curiosity was the most frequently-ranked attribution factor at the early stages of smoking but not for daily smoking. Coping was highly-ranked across smoking stages. Social image and social belonging were more highly-ranked at earlier stages, whereas engagement and mental enhancement were ranked more highly at later stages of smoking. More attributions were associated with smoking among males than among females. This information could be useful for the development of evidence-based anti-smoking programs in China.
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2007, Behaviour Research and Therapy
The primary aim of this study was to examine whether smoking to reduce negative affect was uniquely related to a range of affective vulnerability factors (e.g., anxiety sensitivity, anxious arousal, and negative affectivity) among daily smokers. Participants were 276 young adult daily smokers (124 females; $M_{age} = 25.12$ , $SD = 10.37$ ). Partially consistent with prediction, the motivation to smoke to reduce negative affect was significantly related to anxiety sensitivity and negative affectivity, but not anxious arousal; the observed significant effects were above and beyond other theoretically relevant factors (e.g., smoking rate, years smoked, age, gender). In contrast to prediction, habitual smoking motives demonstrated significant incremental associations with anxiety sensitivity and anxious arousal symptoms. These results suggest that there are important associations between certain smoking motives and negative affective states and that such relations are not attributable to other smoking factors (e.g., smoking rate).
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There is conflicting evidence concerning gender differences in success at quitting smoking. Information is especially lacking regarding gender differences among unaided quitters who make up the vast majority of those attempting to quit. One hundred thirty-five smokers who made an unaided attempt at quitting were interviewed before quitting and were followed for 1 year after cessation. Relapse rates were extremely high both for men and women, with 62% of participants returning to regular smoking within 15 days after cessation. Women and men were equally likely to maintain short-term abstinence (through 15 days), but women were more than three times as likely to relapse subsequently. Nine percent of men, but no women, had biochemically verified sustained abstinence throughout the 1-year follow-up period. For both men and women, any smoking after the quit attempt inevitably led to fullblown relapse. Most participants resumed regular smoking within 24 hours after the first episode of smoking. Gender differences were observed for several variables related to smoking history, demographics, social support, perceived stress, and motivational factors, but these differences did not explain the increased risk of relapse for women. Our results clearly indicate that women are less likely than men to maintain long-term smoking abstinence following an unaided quit attempt, but reasons for this gender difference need further exploration.

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^☆: This research was presented at the meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., 1980.

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Attributions for smoking behavior: Comparing smokers with nonsmokers and predicting smokers' cigarette consumption☆

Abstract

Addictive Behaviors

Addictive Behaviors

Addictive Behaviors

Addictive Behaviors

Action of nicotine on the heart

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Personality variables associated with cigarette smoking

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Smokers, non-smokers, and the attribution of addiction

British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology

Smokers' and non-smokers' attributions about smoking: A case of actor-observer differences?

British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology

A multiple-component treatment approach to smoking reduction

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Smoking behavior and its relation to the smoker's immediate experience

British Journal of Social and Clincial Psychology

Smoker's self testing kit

A scale to differentiate between types of smoking as related to the management of affect

International Journal of Addictions

The experience of affect as a determinant of smoking behavior: A series of validity studies

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

The actor and the observer: Divergent perceptions of the causes of behavior

Self-labeling of bodily states

JSAS Catalogue of Selected Documents in Psychology

Self-perception: The psychology of personal awareness

Successful treatment of smokers with a broad-spectrum behavioral approach

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Pleasure, addiction, and habit: Factors in verbal report or factors in smoking behavior?

Journal of Abnormal Psychology