Smokers of the future

Abstract

Teenagers continue to be initiated into smoking, especially young women. A predictor of smoking is the existence of stressors in their life. The major components of smoking motivation have been found to be similar in young smokers to those found in older smokers, except for the appearance of a group who are resisting the pressures against smoking. There is no evidence that the smokers of the future will be more extreme personality types than the smokers of 10 or more years ago. Changes in demographic characteristics of smokers in the United Kingdom and the United States in favour of relatively more women and more smokers from the poorer socio-economic groups requires investigation into whether this is attributable to different coping requirements in these groups.

Nicotine self-administration and withdrawal: modulation of anxiety in the social interaction test in rats

“…There is considerable evidence that smoking alleviates the increased anxiety resulting from abstinence, but little evidence that it has an anxiolytic effect in non-deprived smokers (Parrott 1999). Indeed, there is evidence that smokers experience higher levels of stress and anxiety than non-smokers (Warburton et al 1991;West 1992;Jones and Parrott 1997). Adolescent smokers also report significantly higher levels of nervousness, stress and anxiety than age-matched non-smokers (Hirschman et al 1984;Mitic et al 1985;Wills 1986;Lloyd and Lucas 1997).…”

Contextualising the medical risks of cigarette smoking: Australian young women’s perceptions of anti-smoking campaigns

“…As I will point out, based on the responses that follow, many of the young women clearly perceive the unidimensionality of the campaigns as offering a limited understanding of smoking conduct, and suggest that smoking has much more to do with the wider situations in which they find themselves. That is to say, for many of the young women, smoking is often used: to control their psychological state, for social reasons, for pleasure, or to resist the medical and social pressures which discourage smoking (see also Warburton et al 1991, 622, Shevalier 2000, 423, Aghi et al 2001. With Loretta, a 21-year-old smoker who has been smoking about 12 cigarettes a day for 3 years, her smoking conduct is linked to her 'social scene' and emotional state.…”

Cultural, Material, and Psychosocial Correlates of the Socioeconomic Gradient in Smoking Behavior among Adults

“…This should indicate whether the correlates of socioeconomic differences in smoking as identified here are causal determinants of the social pattern of smoking. Moreover, further research should pay attention to some determinants of smoking that were omitted in this study, including social pressure and smoking behavior of peers [27,[45][46][47][48]. Younger age groups should be included too, since most smokers start during adolescence, and socioeconomic differences in smoking already exist in that age group [48,49].…”