Self-monitored motives for smoking among college students.
College student smokers (N = 50) were asked to carry electronic diaries for 14 days and record smoking events (n = 1,139). They indicated why they were smoking each cigarette on a checklist of potential motives. Results suggest that a desire to reduce craving (62.8% of occasions) and habit/automatic processes (42.8%) were the most frequent motives. More dependent and daily smokers were especially likely to endorse smoking to reduce craving and for habit/automatic reasons and were less likely to cite coping with negative emotion as a reason for smoking. Dependent and daily smokers were more likely to endorse at least 1 dependence-like motive and were less likely to exclusively attribute smoking to nondependence motives. Self-monitored motives appeared valid, according with conceptually related states, activities, and events in the diary records. Diary-recorded motives were compared with smokers' responses to a retrospective motives questionnaire administered at baseline. The 2 assessment modes produced discrepant estimates of the most influential motivational processes. Questionnaire responses incompletely forecast conceptually similar diary-reported motives. Dependence and daily smoking showed a different pattern of associations with diary-based versus retrospective motives measures.
Piasecki
Thomas M
TM
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. piaseckit@missouri.edu
Richardson
Alison E
AE
Smith
Shawn M
SM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D034201:Computers, Handheld; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006184:Habits; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D009042:Motivation; D009538:Nicotine / Q000009:adverse effects; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000523:psychology
D009538:Nicotine