Using the Implicit Association Test to investigate attitude-behaviour consistency for stigmatised behaviour

To consciously bolster behaviour that is disapproved by others (i.e., stigmatised behaviour) people may hold and report a favourable attitude toward the behaviour. However, achieving such bolstering outside awareness may be more difficult. Explicit attitudes were measured with self-report measures, and the Implicit Association Test was used to assess implicit attitudes toward behaviour held by stigmatised actors (smokers) and nonstigmatised actors (vegetarians and omnivores). Smokers' showed greater attitude-behaviour consistency in their explicit attitudes toward smoking that in their implicit attitudes. By contrast, vegetarians and omnivores showed attitude-behaviour-consistency at both implicit and explicit levels. Smokers' implicit negative attitudes toward smoking may reflect its status as a stigmatised behaviour, or its addictive nature.     

The association between teacher attitudes, behavioral intentions, and smoking and the prevalence of smoking among seventh-grade students.

Seventh-grade students and teachers from twenty-three middle and junior high schools were surveyed to determine the association between teacher attitudes, behavioral intentions, and smoking behavior and the prevalence of student smoking. Teacher attitudes toward smoking policies were found to be strongly related to the current smoking behavior of the teacher but not consistently related to student smoking. In addition, teacher likelihood of intervening showed a modest association with teacher smoking status, with current smokers generally indicating being the least likely to intervene for student possession or use of cigarettes. Teacher intentions to intervene were strongly associated with the prevalence of smoking among boys but not girls.     

Relationship of Acculturation and Family Functioning to Smoking Attitudes and Behaviors Among Asian-American Adolescents

The primary objective of this study was to examine the combination of acculturation, family functioning, and parental smoking as predictors of smoking attitudes and behaviors among Asian-American adolescents. The participants were 106 Asian-American high school students whose ages ranged from 15 to 19 (51 male and 55 female, mean age = 16.30 years). Of the sample, 49% reported having tried smoking, and 27% identified themselves as regular smokers. The results indicated that smoking attitudes were significantly associated with smoking behaviors. Compared to nonsmokers, adolescent regular smokers had more positive smoking attitudes, lower acculturation, poorer family functioning and were more likely to have a father who smoked.     

A portable version of the go/no-go association task (GNAT)

The present article describes a portable version of the go/no-go association task (GNAT) that runs on Palm Pilot and Handspring personal digital assistant (PDA) devices. The PDA version of the GNAT was modeled after a portable version of the Implicit Association Test (Dabbs, Bassett, & Dyomina, 2003) and was designed to facilitate measurement of implicit social cognition in field settings and among difficult-to-reach populations. The PDA version of the GNAT was used to assess implicit attitudes about smoking among 11 smokers and 28 nonsmokers. Support for the validity of the PDA version of the GNAT was provided by findings that smokers showed less negative implicit attitudes toward smoking, as measured by the GNAT, than did nonsmokers and that these implicit attitudes were positively correlated with self-reported smoking attitudes among both groups.     

Psychological distress and help-seeking among Taiwanese college students: role of gender and student status

This study investigated the relationship between psychological distress and attitudes toward seeking professional help and whether the relationship was moderated by gender and student status (traditional vs. non-traditional) among Chinese college students in Taiwan. 961 first-year university students completed standardised measures of depression, anxiety, attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, and a demographic questionnaire. Results from the multiple regression analysis found that while higher levels of depression were adversely correlated with help-seeking attitudes, gender was positively correlated with help-seeking attitudes. Chinese female students held more favourable attitudes toward seeking psychological help than their male counterparts. Additionally, gender interacted with depression and anxiety in affecting attitudes toward help-seeking. These results were discussed within the Chinese cultural context and recommendations were given for student outreach programme aimed at increasing utilisation of mental health services on campus.     

Historical changes in cigarette smoking and smoking-related beliefs after 2 decades in a midwestern community.

Rates of cigarette smoking and smoking-related beliefs in 1980 and 2001 among 7th-11th graders in a midwestern community were compared. Smoking was less prevalent in 2001 than in 1980, with the greatest declines in experimental smoking and a smaller drop in regular smoking. Beliefs about smoking generally became more negative. Adolescents (particularly nonsmokers) viewed smoking as more addictive and as having more negative social consequences in 2001 than in 1980 and had more negative attitudes toward smoking in 2001. These results were replicated among parent-child pairs in which parents were measured when they were adolescents between 1980 and 1983 and their children were measured in 2001. These beliefs and attitudes partially mediated the effects of time on smoking.     

Assessing the attitude of veterans toward a smoking cessation program in a hospital setting.

110 male patients in a V. A. Hospital were surveyed in regard to their smoking behavior, attitudes toward smoking, and their willingness to participate in a treatment program designed to eliminate smoking. Some of the more important findings were that 68% of the patient population smoked as compared to 50% for the ggeneral male population. Only 57% of the smokers felt that smoking was harmful to their health. Many of the smokers (60%) had tried to stop smoking but were unsuccessful. 58% of the smokers stated that they would participate in a smoking treatment program. The results of this survey are interpreted to indicate the need for hospital and institutional treatment programs for elimination of smoking.     

A Qualitative Exploration of the Theory of Triadic Influence in a Nigerian Setting: The Case of Cigarette Smoking

The theory of triadic influence (TTI) was employed as a framework to explore the risk influences for cigarette smoking among an inclusive sample of young smokers. This qualitative study involved a purposive sample of 18 young smokers aged 18–24 years. Data were collected using individual interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. Following the TTI, factors found to influence young people’s initiation and perpetuation of smoking included at the intrapersonal level, sensation seeking, hedonic attitudes and poor coping skills; young smokers engage in cigarettes smoking to cope with social and psychological challenges like stress, worries, to aid digestion and for relaxation. At the interpersonal level, smokers were influenced by their peers and significant others like parents, brothers, teachers and mentors. Immediate risk influences for smoking included experimentation with cigarettes and the use of other substances like marijuana and alcohol. Intervention programmes targeted at building life skills and the ability to resist the pressure from peers and significant others to smoke are needed.     

Mood as a resource in dealing with health recommendations: How mood affects information processing and acceptance of quit-smoking messages

Objective: An experimental study tested the effects of positive and negative mood on the processing and acceptance of health recommendations about smoking in an online experiment. It was hypothesised that positive mood would provide smokers with the resources to systematically process self-relevant health recommendations.

Design: One hundred and twenty-seven participants (smokers and non-smokers) read a message in which a quit smoking programme was recommended. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: positive versus negative mood, and strong versus weak arguments for the recommended action.

Main outcome measures: Systematic message processing was inferred when participants were able to distinguish between high- and low-quality arguments, and by congruence between attitudes and behavioural intentions. Persuasion was measured by participant's attitudes towards smoking and the recommended action, and by their intentions to follow the action recommendation.

Results: As predicted, smokers systematically processed the health message only under positive mood conditions; non-smokers systematically processed the health message only under negative mood conditions. Moreover, smokers’ attitudes towards the health message predicted intentions to quit smoking only under positive mood conditions.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that positive mood may decrease defensive processing of self-relevant health information.     

United States and Japanese college students' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help

The purpose of the study was to find how nationality, sex, and past experience of seeking professional psychological services are related to attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Three hundred Japanese college students and 300 US college students responded to the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help (ATSPPH) questionnaire. The ATSPPH consists of four subscales: Need (recognition of need), Stigma Tolerance (the degree of tolerance against stigma associated with help‐seeking action), Openness (interpersonal openness), and Confidence (confidence in mental health professionals). As predicted, past experience of seeking professional psychological service and sex were important predictor variables of performance on the ATSPPH scales. Those who had past experience of seeking professional psychological help had more favourable attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help than those who never consulted psychological professionals. Similarly, in testing the past experience separately with the two nation groups, past experience with seeking professional psychological services was found to be a predictor of the overall attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help among Japanese and US participants. Furthermore, Japanese participants with past experience also showed greater recognition of need for professional psychological help and confidence in psychological health professions than Japanese without past experience. The degree of stigma tolerance associated with help‐seeking behaviour and the tendency of interpersonal openness, however, did not differ between Japanese participants with and without the past experience of seeking professional psychological services. The same results were also found among the US participants. In terms of sex as a predictor variable, females tended to have more positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help than males. There was a significant nationality by sex interaction effect. US females had significantly more favourable attitudes than the other three groups, indicating that there was sex difference in help‐seeking attitudes in the US group, but not in the Japanese group. If the sex variable is ignored, Japanese students have less favourable overall attitudes toward seeking professional psychological services than US students. Other results and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Smoking and social anxiety: the role of false safety behaviors

ABSTRACT

Despite the negative health consequences associated with smoking, most smokers find it difficult to quit. This is especially true for smokers with elevated social anxiety. One factor that may play a role in maintaining smoking with elevated anxiety is false safety behavior (FSB), behaviors geared toward decreasing anxiety short-term but that maintain or increase anxiety long-term. The present study tested whether FSB explained the relation of social anxiety severity with smoking among 71 current smokers. Avoidance-related FSB was the only type of FSB related to cigarettes smoked per day (CPD) and it was robustly related to more CPD. Further, social anxiety was related to CPD indirectly via FSB-Avoidance. Findings suggest that more frequent use of avoidance behaviors to manage anxiety may maintain smoking and may partially explain the high rates of smoking among those with elevated social anxiety. Thus, FSB may be a promising target in smoking cessation interventions, especially among those with elevated social anxiety.     

An "Epidemic" Model of Adolescent Cigarette Smoking

The prevalence of regular smoking increases rapidly during adolescence. We applied modeling methods from the study of epidemic infectious disease to smoking behavior. Our "epidemic" models dealt with the process of transition among four states: nonsmoker (susceptible), trier (exposed), regular smoker (infected), and ex-smoker (recovered). The best fitting model was one in which the transition from nonsmoker to trier was a social contagion process where nonsmokers contacted either triers or regular smokers. All other transitions were treated as constant rate processes in which a constant proportion of eligible individuals made the transition in a given year. The recursive equation model embodying these assumptions was able to predict accurately the proportion of adolescents in each state in Grades 6–11. Our results support a "stage" model of smoking, suggesting that different psychological and physiological processes are involved in the initiation of smoking than in developing a habit of regular smoking. A possible sex difference was found in the non-contact transition between trier and smoker states, with the transition being more probable in females than in males.     

Smoking and psychological health in relation to country of origin

In English-speaking, Western-Anglo countries, where smoking has become stigmatized in recent decades as a result of widespread anti-smoking campaigns, smokers commonly report poorer psychological health on average than nonsmokers do. This may be indirectly related to the strong pressures to quit in such countries, as poorer psychological health is associated with a reduced likelihood of quitting, thus leading to a selection bias for smokers with relatively poorer psychological health. In the present study, 147 smoker and nonsmoker participants either came from Western-Anglo countries where smoking has become stigmatized (Australia, Canada, USA) or countries in regions where smoking remains relatively more accepted (Asia, Latin America, Europe). Smokers and nonsmokers were assessed on a widely used self-report measure of anxiety, depression, and stress. Multivariate analysis revealed a significant interaction between smoker status (smoker, nonsmoker) and country of origin (Western-Anglo, other) on psychological health ratings, with univariate analysis showing a significant interaction on anxiety scores. Among those from Western-Anglo countries, smokers reported significantly higher levels of anxiety than nonsmokers did, whereas there was no difference in anxiety between smokers and nonsmokers from other countries. There was no difference in the number of cigarettes smoked per day between the samples of smokers, indicating very similar levels of nicotine intake in the two groups. The findings support the notion that a selection bias for smokers with relatively poorer psychological health is occurring in Western-Anglo countries.     

Negative mood,depressive symptoms,and major depression after smoking cessation treatment in smokers with a history of major depressive disorder

Negative mood, depressive symptoms, and major depressive episodes (MDEs) were examined in 179 smokers with a history of major depression in a trial comparing standard smoking cessation treatment to treatment incorporating cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression (CBT-D). Early lapses were associated with relatively large increases in negative mood on quit date. Mood improved in the 2 weeks after quit date among those returning to regular smoking but not among those smoking moderately. Continuous abstinence was associated with short- and long-term reductions in depressive symptoms. MDE incidence during follow-up was 15.3% and was not associated with abstinence. Unexpected was that CBT-D was associated with greater negative mood and depressive symptoms and increased MDE risk. Results suggest complex bidirectional associations between affect and smoking outcomes.     

Smoking as subculture? Influence on Hispanic and non-Hispanic White women's attitudes toward smoking and obesity.

Cultural stereotypes might help explain why smoking is less prevalent among Hispanic than non-Hispanic White women, whereas obesity is more prevalent. Hispanic (n = 130) and non-Hispanic White (n = 114) women rated their thoughts and feelings regarding a female smoker and an overweight woman. Ethnicity did not influence evaluations, but attitudes toward smokers were more positive among more acculturated Hispanic women, F(1, 66) = 9.9, p < .01. Less acculturated women evaluated an overweight woman more positively than a smoker, F(1, 28) = 5.65, p < .05; more acculturated women did the opposite, F( 1, 36) = 5.92, p < .05. Smokers evaluated smokers more positively than overweight women, F(1, 86) = 40.8, p < .01; nonsmokers did the opposite, F(l, 138) = 7.7, p < .01. Personal body weight did not influence evaluations. Acculturation and smoking status appear to have a greater influence than ethnicity or weight status on women's attitudes toward smoking and weight.     

The role of patients' ability to pay, gender, and smoking history on public attitudes toward cardiac transplant allocation: an experimental investigation.

This study assessed public attitudes toward organ allocation through vignettes that were varied by patient's ability to pay (insured or uninsured), gender, and smoking history (current, former, or never). Participants were 681 adults contacted at a state driver's license office who read a vignette about a heart transplant candidate and subsequently rated their likelihood and priority of offering transplantation. Results revealed main effects for patient smoking history exclusively. Post hoc analyses for likelihood of offering transplantation revealed that participants gave higher ratings for never smokers than current smokers. For priority of transplantation, analyses revealed higher ratings for never smokers than for both former smokers and current smokers. Results suggest that public opinion about organ allocation may include the consideration of smoking history but not ability to pay or gender.     

Aging attitudes moderate the effect of subjective age on psychological well-being: evidence from a 10-year longitudinal study

Older subjective age is often associated with lower psychological well-being among middle-aged and older adults. We hypothesize that attitudes toward aging moderate this relationship; specifically, feeling older will predict lower well-being among those with less favorable attitudes toward aging but not those with more favorable aging attitudes. We tested this with longitudinal data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States-II assessing subjective age and psychological well-being over 10 years. As hypothesized older subjective age predicted lower life satisfaction and higher negative affect when aging attitudes were less favorable but not when aging attitudes were more favorable. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Attitudinal and Social Factors in Adolescent Smoking: In Search of Peer Group Influence1

The smoking attitudes and behavior of two samples of British 15-year-olds (N = 278) were studied by questionnaire. “Smokers” (anyone who had smoked at all within the previous week) held less negative attitudes about smoking, were more likely to have a father who smoked, and anticipated less parental disapproval of their smoking. When asked to name their five best friends among their classmates, smokers were more likely to name other smokers than were nonsmokers. On the basis of these results, we argue that the notion of “peer group influence” should be reconceptualized in terms of intergroup processes and social identity concerns within the peer group.     

Secondary smoking prevention in a university setting: a randomized comparison of an experiential, theory-based intervention and a standard didactic intervention for increasing cessation motivation.

OBJECTIVE: College may represent an untapped opportunity to reach the growing number of student smokers who are at risk of progressing toward regular smoking. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of a theory-based experiential intervention for increasing motivation to quit smoking and reducing smoking behavior. DESIGN: This study used a 3-arm, randomized design to examine the efficacy of an experiential secondary prevention intervention. The control groups included a traditional didactic smoking intervention and an experiential intervention on nutrition. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The 2 primary dependent variables were change in self-reported intention to quit smoking, measured pre- and postintervention, and change in smoking behavior over the month following the intervention. RESULTS: As hypothesized, the experiential smoking intervention was more effective than either control group in increasing immediate motivation to quit, but the effect was found only among female participants. At 1-month follow-up, both smoking interventions produced higher rates of smoking cessation and reduction than did the nutrition control condition. CONCLUSION: Findings support the potential efficacy of an intensive experiential intervention for female smokers.