Self-Esteem, Psychological Distress, and Coping Styles in Pregnant Smokers and Non-Smokers

Abstract

The literature underscores that psychological factors could play an important role in smoking behavior, which is considered a coping mechanism. To study relations among measures of self-esteem, psychological distress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and coping styles in pregnant smokers, a cross-sectional study was conducted. These factors were assessed in two groups of pregnant women (Smokers, n = 40; Non-smokers, n = 40) contacted at one University Hospital in Paris. All participants filled out the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, the General Health Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale, and the Brief Cope Scale. Comparisons, correlations, and regression models were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the group of pregnant women who smoked had significantly lower mean self-esteem, elevated psychological distress and anxiety scores, and reported using more emotion-focused coping than the group of pregnant non-smokers. Self-esteem significantly predicted problem-focused coping. This study confirms the importance of assessing these psychological variables to offer women more specific support to quit smoking.

Assessment of successful smoking cessation by psychological factors using the Bayesian network approach

“…Our data presented that 93.14% of Chinese rural male smokers obeyed the smoking cessation advice from doctors. And these people with high GSE and high PTCS had more self-confidence to fulfill the smoking cessation (DiClemente, 1981;Varescon et al, 2013). Another joint condition was high PYS, low GSE, high PTCS, low NTCS and low SA.…”

“…In general, anxiety, depressed mood, psychological distress and negative coping style predict bad cessation outcomes (Abrams et al, 1987;Aubin, Rollema, Svensson, & Winterer, 2012;Bernard et al, 2013;Bliss, Garvey, Heinold, & Hitchcock, 1989;Glassman et al, 1990;Varescon, Leignel, Gerard, Aubourg, & Detilleux, 2013). However, special attention should be paid to current researches.…”

“…Some articles reported anxiety and coping style did not affect the process of smoking cessation (Hitsman, Borrelli, McChargue, Spring, & Niaura, 2003;Piper et al, 2010;Siqueira, Rolnitzky, & Rickert, 2001). Second, the psychological factors were not independent, and they might have a strong internal association (Varescon et al, 2013;Webb Hooper, Baker, & McNutt, 2013) so multicollinearity was often detected in multiple regression. Finally, some psychological factors cause different effects to smoking under different psychological conditions (Kerr, Woods, Knussen, Watson, & Hunter, 2013;Leventhal et al, 2012).…”

Content analysis of comments posted on Australian online news sites reporting a celebrity admitting smoking while pregnant

“…4 Stigmatisation may also undermine their help-seeking smoking cessation efforts [5][6][7] and deter antenatal healthcare providers from intervening with clients. 8 On 6 February 2013, Australian radio and television personality Chrissie Swan made a public announcement that she had been secretly smoking during her pregnancy, generating extensive media coverage in Australia. Swan framed her announcement as a confession and a moral failing, resulting in media coverage that focused on the societal judgement of pregnant women who smoke.…”

‘The secret shame’: a content analysis of online news reporting of a celebrity admitting smoking while pregnant

“…6 The stigmatisation of pregnant smokers may influence pregnant women to falsely report their smoking status, undermine their cessation efforts [7][8][9] and deter antenatal healthcare providers from intervening with clients. 10 This paper reports on the findings of a content analysis of online news stories generated by Swan's announcement. Studies show that news stories about celebrities and their health issues can increase the community's uptake of important preventive health behaviours such as screening and searching for health information.…”