Zhao Yixin, Li Yong, Shu Yang, Wang Xiaoyan, Wang Wen, Yang Lian
School of Public Health, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2025 Sep 2;16:1642341. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1642341. eCollection 2025.
Previous studies have demonstrated that negative emotions increase smoking cravings. To date, the specific action pathways between negative emotions and smoking cravings remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between negative emotions and smoking cravings, as well as to determine whether self-control and self-exempting beliefs serve as mediating variables for this association.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in Sichuan Province, Southwest China, from January 2022 to April 2023. Negative emotions, self-control, self-exempting beliefs, and smoking cravings were assessed using questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze smoking cravings and their influencing factors. Correlation and mediation effect analyses were conducted to investigate the intrinsic correlations among the research variables.
This study involved 1293 current smokers. We observed significant differences in smoking cravings across demographic groups. In addition, negative emotions, self-control, and self-exempting beliefs were all significantly associated with smoking cravings (p< 0.05). After controlling for socio-demographic variables, both self-control and self-exempting beliefs exhibited a chain mediating role between negative emotions and smoking cravings. Negative emotions exerted a direct effect on smoking cravings, with an effect value of 0.0694, accounting for 61.29% of the total effect value. Self-control and self-exempting beliefs mediated the relationship between negative emotions and smoking cravings, with effect values of 0.0334 and 0.0081, representing 29.47% and 7.16% of the total effect value, respectively. The chain mediating effect value of self-control and self-exempting beliefs was 0.0024, representing 2.08% of the total effect value.
This study demonstrates that self-control and self-exempting beliefs partially mediate the relationship between smokers' negative emotional states and their cravings to smoke. It is important to pay timely attention to the emotional changes of smokers, enhance their ability to maintain self-control in negative emotional states, and mitigate smoking-related self-exempting beliefs to help smokers better cope with smoking cravings caused by emotional changes, prevent relapse, and achieve long-term smoking cessation goals.
以往研究表明，负面情绪会增加吸烟欲望。迄今为止，负面情绪与吸烟欲望之间的具体作用途径尚不清楚。本研究旨在探讨负面情绪与吸烟欲望之间的关联，并确定自我控制和自我宽恕信念是否作为这种关联的中介变量。
2022年1月至2023年4月在中国西南部的四川省进行了一项横断面研究。使用问卷评估负面情绪、自我控制、自我宽恕信念和吸烟欲望。采用描述性统计和单因素方差分析来分析吸烟欲望及其影响因素。进行相关性和中介效应分析以研究研究变量之间的内在相关性。
本研究纳入了1293名当前吸烟者。我们观察到不同人口学群体在吸烟欲望上存在显著差异。此外，负面情绪、自我控制和自我宽恕信念均与吸烟欲望显著相关（p<0.05）。在控制社会人口学变量后，自我控制和自我宽恕信念在负面情绪与吸烟欲望之间均表现出链式中介作用。负面情绪对吸烟欲望有直接影响，效应值为0.0694，占总效应值的61.29%。自我控制和自我宽恕信念中介了负面情绪与吸烟欲望之间的关系，效应值分别为0.0334和0.0081，分别占总效应值的29.47%和7.16%。自我控制和自我宽恕信念的链式中介效应值为0.0024，占总效应值的2.08%。
本研究表明，自我控制和自我宽恕信念部分中介了吸烟者负面情绪状态与其吸烟欲望之间的关系。及时关注吸烟者的情绪变化，增强他们在负面情绪状态下保持自我控制的能力，减轻与吸烟相关的自我宽恕信念，有助于吸烟者更好地应对情绪变化引起的吸烟欲望，防止复吸，实现长期戒烟目标。
