Health-related behaviour and personality trait development in adulthood

This investigation explored the contribution of a healthy lifestyle to personality trait stability and change during adulthood. A nationally representative sample of 11,133 Australian adults completed self-report measures of health-related behaviour and personality traits at baseline (2010) and again four years later (2014). Results showed that physical activity and alcohol intake, and to a lesser extent diet and cigarette smoking, were important for mean-level change and intra-individual stability of personality for all trait dimensions. Moreover, positive health behaviours were associated with less of a decrease in extraversion and more of an increase in openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness over four years.These findings suggest that healthy living might help to facilitate desirable personality trait stability and change during adulthood.     

Prevalence of cigarette smoking in Iran.

The current research assessed the prevalence of cigarette smoking in Shiraz, Iran by randomly selecting 1,335 subjects (782 men and 553 women) from the city for a face-to-face interview and completion of a questionnaire. Of the participants, 205 (26%) of the men and 20 (3.6%) of the women reported being current smokers. The mean ages of smokers and nonsmokers were 41.8 and 37.0 yr., respectively (range between 16 and 90 years for smokers and nonsmokers). The mean age of starting to smoke cigarettes was 21.3 yr. (range of 10 to 60). The most common reasons for current cigarette smoking were Need to avoid withdrawal symptoms, Release of tension, and Pleasurable purposes. Foreign filter-tipped cigarettes were the most common type consumed. The mean number of cigarettes per day was 13.4 (SD = 10.3). Reports for onset of cigarette smoking included Modeling, Release of tension, and Pleasurable purposes. Cigarette smoking was reported by more males than females. The most common reason for onset of cigarette smoking was different from that for current smoking. Frequencies of smokers within age groups were varied.     

Concurrent and prospective relationships between social engagement and personality traits in older adulthood

The current research examined the longitudinal relationship between social engagement and personality traits in older adults. Specifically, the present research examined how engagement in family and community roles related to conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability in a sample of 100 Illinois residents age 60-86 years assessed twice over a period of 2.5 years. Social engagement and personality traits were related in three ways. First, concurrent relationships during Wave 1 suggested that agreeable older adults are more socially engaged. Next, Wave 1 standing on both personality traits and social engagement predicted respective change over time. In addition, changes in engagement and personality traits covaried over time. The specific patterns presented in this study suggest that although some relationships were consistent with research findings in young adulthood and midlife, role investment in old age may have a distinctly different meaning than role investment earlier in the life span. These patterns suggest that personality traits can both inform our understanding of engagement during older adulthood and that personality traits may be meaningful outcomes of the aging experience in their own right. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

助推戒烟的行为干预策略

烟草危害是人类所面临的重大公共健康挑战之一。传统的控烟策略主要依赖健康宣教、烟草税和控烟条例等手段,但是较少考虑到吸烟行为的“非理性因素”及其心理机制,因此仍不能有效帮助吸烟者成功戒烟。行为科学的发展为助推吸烟者成功戒烟提供了新视角。以实施主体和干预的影响机制为划分标准,可将助推戒烟的行为干预策略分为由政府和公共健康服务部门执行的情境型干预策略和认知型干预策略以及吸烟者可自主执行的情境型和认知型干预策略,一方面便于吸烟者和相关部门选取可执行的戒烟行为干预策略,另一方面为进一步开发和验证助推戒烟的行为干预策略提供参考。虽然基于行为科学的助推干预策略已经取得了一定的进展,未来研究仍有必要进一步在真实世界中验证和评估戒烟助推干预策略的效果。未来也有必要进一步将行为改变技术融入到数字化的戒烟服务或应用小程序中去以提升其效果。未来也需要考察如何应用戒烟助推干预策略防止电子烟产品的负面影响并减少这类策略的误用和滥用。     

Investigating the Big Five Personality Factors and Smoking: Implications for Assessment

Global personality dispositions may be important for understanding population-based individual differences in smoking outcomes, yet few studies have been executed using measures of these global dispositional constructs from the contemporary field of personality. This study explored whether the Big Five personality factors (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Intellect) were concurrently associated with key smoking (e.g., nicotine dependence, smoking rate, age at first cigarette) and cessation (e.g., self-efficacy to quit, motivation to quit, number of prior quit attempts, length of most recent quit) variables in a sample of regular smokers (n = 130). Of the 35 correlations computed, only 2 were significant: Intellect was positively correlated with motivation to quit and number of 24-hr quit attempts in the last year. These results have implications for using trait variables to study individual differences in smokers.     

Prevalence,Correlates and Perceptions Towards Cigarette Smoking Among Male and Female in School Adolescents (Aged 11–18 Years) in South Africa: Results from the 2008 GYTS Study

The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and identify correlates of current cigarette use among 8,470 school-going adolescents (aged 11 to 18 years) in South Africa. A cross-sectional study was carried out in 2008 in South Africa within the framework of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS). Overall prevalence of current cigarette smoking was 16.5%. Significantly more males (22.8%) than females (10.5%) were current smokers (p < .001). Cigarette smoking among boys and girls was positively associated with parental and/or peer smoking and greater risk perception, and among girls smoking attitudes variables (having more friends among girls, greater attractiveness of boys and weight change) and various higher exposure to smoking advertising and promotion activities were positively associated with cigarette smoking. However, antismoking advertising and community and family education were positively associated with current smoking, while only having school or community special groups or classes for students who want to stop smoking was protective of smoking. Cigarette smoking and other tobacco use is a significant public health problem in South Africa. Public health efforts aimed at preventing adolescent cigarette/tobacco use should incorporate knowledge on the associated factors related to smoking.     

The growing evidence for personality change in adulthood: Findings from research with personality inventories

Theories of adult development all agree that adulthood is a time of important changes in goals, resources, and coping. Yet, impressed with the rank-order stability of individual differences in personality, many researchers interested in personality traits and personality assessment doubt that personality changes in meaningful and systematic ways during adulthood. This article reviews large studies of mean-level change in personality characteristics measured with broad-band personality inventories, and includes both cross-sectional and cross-cohort longitudinal research. The results show considerable generalizability across samples, cohorts, and studies. In particular, people score higher with age on characteristics such as conscientiousness, agreeableness, and norm-adherence, and they score lower with age on social vitality. These findings provide evidence that personality does change during adulthood and that these changes are non-negligible in size, systematic, not necessarily linear, and theoretically important.     

CONTINGENT REINFORCEMENT FOR CARBON MONOXIDE REDUCTION: WITHIN-SUBJECT EFFECTS OF PAY AMOUNT

The relationship between reinforcer amount and daytime smoking reduction in smokers offered money for reduced afternoon breath carbon monoxide (CO) levels was examined. Twenty-three hired regular smokers with average baseline CO levels of about 30 ppm were exposed in random order to five sliding scale payment schedules that changed daily or weekly. Money was available for afternoon CO readings between 0 and 21 ppm with pay amount inversely related to the absolute CO reading obtained. Maximum pay amount for readings below 7 ppm varied among $0, $1.50, $3, $6, and $12 per day. Contingent reinforcement promoted CO and daytime cigarette reduction within individuals with the amount of behavior change related to the amount of payment available. Average CO levels decreased from 30 to 15 ppm as a function of pay amount whereas self-reported daytime cigarettes decreased from 12 to 5 per day. Average minutes of cigarette abstinence prior to the afternoon study contact increased from 62 to 319 minutes as a function of pay amount, whereas the percentage of available money earned increased from 22% to 48%. Nontargeted evening cigarette use also decreased during periods of daytime smoking reduction. The orderly effects of this contingent reinforcement intervention on daytime smoking of regular smoker volunteers suggest that this is a sensitive model for continued evaluation of factors that influence smoking reduction and cessation.     

The asbestos worker who smokes: adding insult to injury

Evaluates whether asbestos workers who smoke cigarettes, thereby increasing their cancer risk synergistically, differ from asbestos workers who choose not to smoke. Demographic, personality, psychologic, and cognitive differences were examined. Engaging in this highly detrimental health behavior was related exclusively to cognitive factors. Although current smokers were cognitively aware of their added health risk, in comparison to past and "never" smokers, they minimized the salience of awareness by fatalistically attributing their health to chance factors such as luck and by minimizing the dangers of smoking, the benefits of smoking cessation, and their own increased vulnerability to life-threatening illnesses. Results are explained in light of the apparent denial of risk. The need for physician intervention is strongly advocated.     

Initiation and Maintenance of Tobacco Smoking: Changing Personality Correlates in Adolescence and Young Adulthood1

Youthful smokers have been described as extroverted and peer-involved, whereas older smokers are often characterized as depressed and withdrawn. Recognizing this contradiction, we examined cross-sectional and prospective associations between smoking and personality and social constructs assessed every 4 years in a sample (N= 461) originally recruited in junior high school. At Time 1, smoking was positively related to good social relations, extroversion, friends' cigarette use, and cheerfulness. At Times 2–4, smoking was positively related to depression and friends' cigarette use, negatively correlated with good Social Relations, and unrelated to extroversion. Cigarette use was stable over time, but least stable between Times 1 and 2. Findings suggest the instability of early social smoking with peers; those who persist may smoke for tension reduction and self-medication.     

A 10-year prospective study of personality and reproductive success: Testing the mediating role of healthy living

Abstract

Objective: There is some evidence that personality relates to childbearing in adulthood but the importance of personality for reproductive capacity is unknown. This study explored cross-time associations between the major dimensions of trait personality and self-reported fertility and fecundity. Methods: A representative sample of young Australian adults [n?=?4501; age range ≈ 18–44 (women), 18–54 (men)] provided information on personality, fertility, fertility intentions, fecundity and lifestyle factors (cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity) in 2006 and again in 2016. Older Australian adults [n?=?4359; age ≥?45 (women), ≥ 55 (men)] provided information on personality, lifestyle factors and completed fertility. Results: After controlling for sociodemographic factors, completed fertility was associated with higher agreeableness in both sexes, and lower conscientiousness and openness in women. In younger adults, higher levels of openness were associated with fewer children 10 years later in both sexes, and higher extraversion was associated with more children 10 years later in men. The association between fertility intentions and subsequent fertility was stronger among women scoring higher on conscientiousness, and women scoring higher on neuroticism were more likely to acquire medical or health difficulties in having children – an effect that was mediated by higher levels of cigarette smoking. Conclusions: The study provides initial evidence for an association between personality and the acquisition of difficulties in having children.     

The relationship of body image dissatisfaction to cigarette smoking in college students

This study examined the association of cigarette smoking status and body image dissatisfaction as measured by the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ), in 1575 young adult college students, 18–24 years of age. Respondents were current cigarette smokers (N = 482) or never tobacco users (N = 1093). Smoking status was found to be significantly associated with 5 of the 10 MBSRQ subscales, with current smokers having lower scores on Fitness Orientation, Health Evaluation and Health Orientation (all p < 0.001) and higher scores on Appearance Orientation (p = 0.01) and Overweight Preoccupation (p = 0.03) compared with never tobacco users. Furthermore, among current smokers, a higher number of days smoked in the last 30 days were associated with lower scores on all MBSRQ subscales, except Self-Classified Weight. In terms of clinical implications, interventions for smoking cessation among college students might benefit from inclusion of components for addressing body image dissatisfaction and improving health beliefs.     

A longitudinal study of the relationship between depressive symptoms and cigarette use among African American adolescents.

The relationship between depressive symptoms and cigarette use was examined in a sample of 623 African Americans during adolescence and transition to adulthood by using hierarchical linear modeling. Participants in the study were interviewed across 6 occasions over 8 years. Results indicate that depressive symptoms tend to decrease over time, whereas cigarette use tends to increase for both female and male adolescents. The results also suggest that depressive symptoms predict later cigarette use. Male adolescents who reported more depressive symptoms were more likely than female adolescents to use cigarettes as a way to cope with their mood. These results suggest that depressive symptoms may be important to consider when developing smoking cessation interventions for African American youth.     

Facets of the NEO-PI-R and smoking cessation

Knowing more about the personality of smokers may help to increase the effectiveness of smoking cessation treatments and can contribute to relapse prevention. The aim of the present study was to analyze the influence of 30 specific facets of the Five-Factor Model of personality on the outcomes at the end of treatment and at 12-month follow-up, in a sample of 281 smokers seeking psychological treatment to stop smoking. Personality facets were assessed with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). Results showed that nicotine dependence and several facets of personality (Self-discipline, Depression, Aesthetics, Trust, and Modesty) contribute to explain short- and long-term outcomes after smoking cessation. These findings support the need of integrate information about individual smoker’s personality facets into smoking cessation programs.     

Effects of internet-based voucher reinforcement and a transdermal nicotine patch on cigarette smoking

Nicotine replacement products are commonly used to promote smoking cessation, but alternative and complementary methods may increase cessation rates. The current experiment compared the short-term effects of a transdermal nicotine patch to voucher-based reinforcement of smoking abstinence on cigarette smoking. Fourteen heavy smokers (7 men and 7 women) completed the four 5-day phases of the study: baseline, patch treatment, voucher treatment, and return to baseline. The order of the two treatment phases was counterbalanced across participants. In the patch treatment condition, participants wore a 14-mg transdermal nicotine patch every day. In the voucher treatment condition, participants received vouchers contingent on abstinence from smoking, defined as producing carbon monoxide (CO) readings of < or =4 parts per million. Participants e-mailed two video clips per day showing them breathing into a CO monitor and the resulting CO reading to clinic staff. In the voucher treatment, 24% of samples were negative, and 5% of samples were negative in the patch treatment. Results suggest that contingent vouchers were more effective than transdermal nicotine patches in promoting abstinence.     

Dual Trajectories of Sleep Duration and Cigarette Smoking during Adolescence: Relation to Subsequent Internalizing Problems

Decreasing sleep duration and increasing cigarette smoking of adolescents are major public health concerns. However, research examining connections between the developmental trajectories of the outcomes that are evolving contemporaneously and their relation to long-term outcomes is still lacking. This study examined distinct trajectories of sleep duration and cigarette smoking during adolescence, associations between these trajectories, and links with internalizing problems during young adulthood. Data were collected from 2510 adolescents who participated in a longitudinal study spanning from 2006 through 2014 in northern Taiwan. Group-based dual trajectory modeling was used to examine the dynamic relationships between sleep duration and cigarette smoking trajectories during adolescence. Multiple linear regression was used to understand the association between the distinct trajectories and subsequent internalizing problems. Three sleep duration trajectories (short decreasing, typical sleep, and long sleep) and three cigarette smoking trajectories (nonsmokers, late increasing, and escalating smokers) were identified. We found significant inter-relationships for sleep duration and cigarette smoking trajectories during adolescence; all atypical sleep duration trajectories conferred increased risks of increased cigarette smoking and vice versa. In addition, the effects of sleep duration and cigarette smoking on later internalizing problems were found to vary by sex and trajectory patterns. These results provide insight regarding the co-development of sleep duration and cigarette smoking trajectories during adolescence. We also highlight the different roles of sleep duration and cigarette smoking trajectories and their relation to internalizing problems of young adulthood.     

Baseline reaction time predicts 12-month smoking cessation outcome in formerly depressed smokers.

Burgeoning evidence points to a positive association between cigarette smoking and depression. Moreover, depressive symptomatology, whether historical, current, or subsyndromal, appears to negatively influence smoking cessation efforts. Whereas depression is typically assessed via clinical interview or self-report, rarely are the known neurocognitive deficits linked to depression (e.g., global slowing) assessed in the context of smoking cessation research. Hence, this study examined whether simple reaction time -- color naming of affectively neutral words -- is predictive of 12-month smoking cessation outcome among a sample of formerly depressed smokers (N = 28). Results revealed a significant, positive correlation between reaction time and depressive symptoms such that those who exhibited slower reaction times were at heightened risk to relapse. Baseline depressive symptoms, as assessed via self-report, neither correlated with nor predicted smoking cessation outcome. Results from logistic regression analyses further showed that reaction time added incremental variance to the prediction of smoking cessation outcome. Therefore, simple reaction time may capture aspects of depression not typically assessed in self-report questionnaires. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and clinical implications for smoking cessation research.     

Comparing intervention outcomes in smokers treated for single versus multiple behavioral risks.

This study examined treatment outcomes among smokers with single versus multiple behavioral risks. Data were drawn from smokers (N = 2,326) participating in 3 population-based, multibehavioral studies targeting cigarette smoking, high-fat diets, and high-risk sun exposure. Outcomes were compared for participants at risk for smoking only (13%), smoking plus 1 additional risk factor (37%), and smoking plus 2 additional risk factors (50%). The smoking only group tended to be female, older, more educated, lighter smokers, in the preparation stage of change for smoking, with more previous quit attempts and longer periods of abstinence. At 12 and 24 months follow-up, treatment of 1 or 2 coexisting risk factors did not decrease the effectiveness of smoking cessation treatment, and treatment for the coexisting factors was effective.     

Predictors of Smoking Status After Eight Years: The Interaction of Stages of Change and Addiction Variables

Abstract

With a smoking rate of 30% of the population Switzerland has one of the highest rates of all industrialised countries. Changes in smoking status over eight years are examined by analysing the course of non-smokers, former smokers and current smokers between 1987 and 1995. Stages of change and addiction variables, as well as their interaction, are analysed for 1987 as predictors of smoking status in 1995.A sample of 953 non-smokers and former and current smokers was interviewed in 1987 and followed up in 1995. Between 1987 and 1995 every fifth non-smoker (20.9%) began smoking. The higher one is in the stage hierarchy the higher the probability of forward than of backward movement. Within the stages of change the likelihood of cessation is moderated by addiction variables. Thus, in the case of contemplating smokers in 1987, the more cigarettes they smoked daily at that time the less likely they were to be former smokers by 1995, but for preparating smokers who had already made an attempt to quit the converse holds - the more they smoked in 1987, the more likely they were to be non-smokers eight years later. The same holds for former smokers in 1987: former moderate smokers then were more likely to relapse than former heavy smokers. The implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.