The influence of coping and coping beliefs on smoking behaviors and urge to smoke

Abstract

Aims: Dr. Harilaos Papachristou examined whether test anxiety, coping with stress, and their interactions predicted smoking quantity in students and found that test anxiety predicted more smoking during exams when combined with specific maladaptive coping styles. Dr. Bradley Collins examined the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between laboratory-induced negative affect (frustration) and smoking urges and found that frustration appears to increase smoking urges more among men than women. Ms. Elena Charalambous assessed the factor structure of the Greek version of the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire (SCQ) and its association with coping styles in an effort to identify the degree to which young smokers use cigarettes as a means of coping. Dr. Jason Robinson will introduce the Coping with the Urge to Smoke Inventory (CUSI), a novel measure of coping with smoking urges that better predicts smoking cessation outcome than simply measuring smoking urges. Rationale: Smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature adult mortality in developed countries. Negative affect and craving have strong influences on smoking behavior. Understanding how smokers cope with negative affect and craving may lead to targeted interventions that reduce smoking behavior in individuals with poor coping skills and maladaptive coping beliefs. Summary: This symposium will demonstrate that the ability to cope with negative affect and craving, the beliefs one has about nicotine's effects on coping, and one's gender may be more influential on smoking behavior than affective state alone.