Abstract B39: Daily assessments of reasons for cigarette smoking among light and heavy smokers
Authors: Darlow Susan , Lobel Marci 
Published: June 2012

There are many reasons why people smoke despite widely recognized adverse consequences to health. Little is known, however, about the consistency of people's reasons for smoking and how these might influence the amount of smoking in individuals. We developed a new concept called motivational flexibility, which suggests that a behavior is more common when people have multiple reasons for engaging in it and when the primary reason changes across occurrences of the behavior. We hypothesized that smoking frequency would be associated with greater number of reasons for smoking and greater frequency of change (shifting) in the most important motive for smoking. Differences between light and heavy smokers were examined. We also examined associations between specific motives to smoke and smoking behavior (average number of cigarettes smoked each day and number of days smoked over the assessment period).

Student cigarette smokers at a northeastern public university (N = 116) completed online daily entries for 14 days, in which they indicated whether they smoked or not and their reasons for smoking, with importance ratings given for each reason listed. Smoking status (nondaily/light vs. daily/heavy) was assessed at baseline. Reasons listed for smoking were coded by trained research assistants into the following motive categories: 1) stress release, 2) craving, 3) boredom, 4) habit/context, 5) social, and 6) appetite suppression. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the relationship between motivational flexibility (greater number of reasons and shifting) and smoking behavior. Multivariate linear regression was used to assess associations between specific smoking motives and smoking behavior.

Results indicated that shifting among the most important motive to smoke over the 14-day assessment was associated with greater frequency of smoking, t(115) = 1.99, p &lt; .05, as hypothesized. When examining light (n = 52) and daily smokers (n = 64) separately, this association was found in light but not daily smokers, t(51) = 2.21, p &lt; .05. The multivariate regression models examining associations between specific motives to smoke and smoking behavior showed that smoking for stress release, t(110) = −2.11, p &lt; .05, craving, t(110) = −2.87, p &lt; .01, and for social reasons, t(110) = −4.06, p &lt; .001, were associated with smoking on fewer of the 14 days. Smoking for craving, t(109) = −2.31, p &lt; .05, boredom, t(109) = −2.81, p &lt; .01, and social reasons, t(109) = −2.36, p &lt; .05, were also associated with smoking fewer cigarettes each day on average over the 14 days.

These results illustrate the importance of situational cues to cigarette smoking and help establish the applicability of the motivational flexibility concept to this behavior. The association between motive shifting and greater frequency of smoking may indicate a greater responsiveness to environmental cues: the environment may activate context-specific reasons for smoking. That we found this association in light but not daily smokers who are likely addicted to cigarettes suggests that light smokers may have more triggers that can be activated, which may result in more smoking. Over time, this may contribute to a shift from light to heavier smoking. Daily smokers may not need as many triggers because presumably they smoke everyday out of habit or addiction. It is also possible that light smokers who smoke more often may feel the need to rationalize their behavior, as illustrated by their listing a variety of reasons as being important for each day that they smoked. Smoking cessation interventions and health professionals should be aware of the role of smokers' reasons for smoking in order to encourage healthful behavior change that will reduce cancer risk.

Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):B39.