Differential gender effects on state frustration and urge to smoke among college regular smokers

Abstract

Smoking craving is impacted by the presence of environmental, social and internal cues associated with smoking (Cepeda-Benito & Tiffany, 1996). Research experiments usually enrolling adults as part of smoking cessation studies (Britt et al., 2001, Morissette et al., 2005), present both self-reported and physiological increases in craving when confronted with smoking related cues such as laboratory induced stress (Niaura et al., 2002, Conklin & Tiffany, 2001). This study aimed to examine the impact of a laboratory induced negative affective task (PASAT task) on smoking cravings among a sample of college student smokers and examined the possible moderating role of gender on state frustration and urge to smoke. Forty-three participants (M age = 21.03, SD = 1.67; 32 female) underwent a stress and frustration induction procedure (PASAT, Lejuez, Kahler & Brown, 2003) while their physiological reactions (e.g. skin conductance, heart rate) and subjective responses (e.g. SUDS ratings, Questionnaire of Smoking Urges, PANAS) were monitored. Results suggest that even though women report higher frustration with the task, frustration appears to be a more important catalyst to smoking urge among men than women.