title: The Role of Smoking-Specific Experiential Avoidance in the Relation Between Perceived Stress and Tobacco Dependence, Perceived Barriers to Cessation, and Problems during Quit Attempts Among Treatment-Seeking Smokers.
abstract: Despite the clinically-significant association between perceived stress and smoking, there is little understanding of the mechanisms underlying this relation. The present study examined smoking-specific experiential avoidance as an explanatory mechanism linking perceived stress and smoking, including nicotine dependence, perceived barriers to cessation, and problems reported during past quit attempts among treatment-seeking daily smokers (n= 365; 48.5% female; Mage= 38.02;SD= 13.10). Results indicated that smoking-specific experiential avoidance had a significant, indirect effect on perceived stress and the studied smoking criterion variables. The present findings provide initial empirical support that smoking-specific experiential avoidance may help explain how perceived stress is associated with smoking. These data suggest that there may be merit to targeting smoking-specific experiential avoidance during smoking cessation among smokers with elevated perceived stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States.
authors.forename: Lorra
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Garey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States.
authors.forename: Samantha G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Farris
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States.
authors.forename: Norman B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States; Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zvolensky
keywords: experiential avoidance; perceived stress; smoking; tobacco