Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA.
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2018 Sep 4;20(10):1215-1222. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntx216.
African American (AA) smokers are at disproportionate risk of tobacco dependence, utilizing smoking to regulate stress, and poor cessation outcomes. Positive emotional traits may function as coping factors that buffer the extent to which dependence increases vulnerability to adverse responses to acute tobacco abstinence (ie, tobacco withdrawal). This laboratory study examined subjective happiness (SH; dispositional orientation towards frequent and intense positive affect [PA] and life satisfaction) as a moderator of the relation between tobacco dependence and subjective and behavioral abstinence effects among AA smokers.
AA smokers (N = 420, 39.0% female) completed self-report measures of tobacco dependence and SH followed by two counterbalanced experimental sessions (nonabstinent vs. 16-hour abstinent) involving self-report measures of composite withdrawal, urge to smoke, and mood, and a behavioral smoking task in which participants could: (1) earn money to delay smoking reinstatement, and (2) subsequently purchase cigarettes to smoke.
Tobacco dependence was positively associated with increased abstinence effects in composite withdrawal, urge to smoke, PA, and latency to smoking reinstatement (ps < .04). SH significantly moderated the relation between dependence and abstinence-induced increases in composite withdrawal (β = -.17, p < .001), such that the predictive power of dependence on withdrawal severity grew proportionately weaker as levels of SH increased.
SH may insulate against adverse effects of dependence on withdrawal during acute smoking abstinence, particularly withdrawal symptom clusters that are craving- and mood-based. Consideration of positive emotional traits as stress-coping factors in the dependence-withdrawal link may be warranted in research and practice with AA smokers.
The current study contributes to a growing body of literature examining the potentially advantageous role of positive emotional traits to smokers. We do so by identifying a relatively understudied psychological construct within tobacco research-subjective happiness-that may suppress the extent to which more severe tobacco dependence increases risk for subjective withdrawal-related distress during acute smoking abstinence in AA smokers. In doing so, the study provides a primer for future targeting of subjective happiness and other positive emotional traits as means to understand and treat acute tobacco abstinence effects among dependent AA smokers.
非裔美国人（AA）吸烟者面临不成比例的烟草依赖风险，他们利用吸烟来调节压力，并且戒烟效果不佳。积极的情绪特质可能是应对因素，可缓冲依赖程度增加对急性烟草戒断的不良反应的脆弱性（即烟草戒断）。这项实验室研究调查了主观幸福感（SH；对频繁和强烈的积极情绪（PA）和生活满意度的倾向）作为 AA 吸烟者烟草依赖与主观和行为戒断效应之间关系的调节剂。
AA 吸烟者（N = 420，39.0%为女性）完成了烟草依赖和 SH 的自我报告测量，然后进行了两个平衡的实验，包括自我报告的综合戒断、吸烟冲动和情绪，以及一项行为吸烟任务，其中参与者可以：(1) 赚钱延迟吸烟复吸，(2) 随后购买香烟吸烟。
烟草依赖与综合戒断、吸烟冲动、PA 和复吸潜伏期增加的戒断效应呈正相关（p <.04）。SH 显著调节了依赖与戒断引起的综合戒断增加之间的关系（β = -.17，p <.001），因此，随着 SH 水平的增加，依赖对戒断严重程度的预测能力呈比例减弱。
SH 可能会在急性吸烟戒断期间减轻依赖对戒断的不利影响，特别是与渴望和情绪相关的戒断症状群。在对 AA 吸烟者的研究和实践中，考虑积极的情绪特质作为压力应对因素可能是合理的。
本研究为研究积极情绪特质在吸烟者中的潜在有利作用提供了越来越多的文献。我们通过识别烟草研究中相对研究较少的心理结构——主观幸福感——来实现这一点，该结构可能会抑制更严重的烟草依赖在 AA 吸烟者急性吸烟戒断期间增加主观戒断相关痛苦的程度。通过这样做，该研究为未来以主观幸福感和其他积极情绪特质为目标，了解和治疗依赖 AA 吸烟者的急性烟草戒断效应提供了基础。
