Linkages between cigarette smoking outcome expectancies and negative emotional vulnerability

              Linkages between cigarette smoking outcome expectancies and negative
emotional vulnerability
Kirsten A. Johnson a, Michael J. Zvolensky a,⁎, Erin C. Marshall a, Adam Gonzalez a,
Kenneth Abrams b, Anka A. Vujanovic a
a The University of Vermont, United States
b Carleton College, United States
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
The present investigation examined whether smoking outcome expectancies, as measured by
the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire (SCQ; [Brandon, T.H., & Baker, T.B., (1991). The
Smoking Consequences Questionnaire: The subjective expected utility of smoking in college
students. Psychological Assessment, 3, 484–491.]), were incrementally related to emotional
vulnerability factors among an adult sample of 202 daily cigarette smokers (44.6% women;
Mage=23.78 years, SD=9.69 years). After controlling for cigarettes smoked/day, past 30-day
marijuana use, current alcohol consumption, and coping style, negative reinforcement/negative
affect reduction outcome expectancies were significantly associated with greater levels of
negative affectivity, emotional dysregulation, and anxiety sensitivity. The observed effects for
negative reinforcement/negative affect reduction also were independent of shared variance
with other outcome expectancies. Negative personal consequences outcome expectancies were
significantly and incrementally related to anxiety sensitivity, but not negative affectivity or
emotional dysregulation. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of negative reinforcement/
negative affect reduction smoking outcome expectancies and clinically-relevant negative
emotional vulnerability for better understanding cigarette smoking-negative mood problems.
© 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Cigarette smoking
Outcome expectancies
Emotional vulnerability
Negative affectivity
Emotional dysregulation
Anxiety sensitivity
1. Introduction
There is a recent and increasingly well-documented association between cigarette smoking and depressive and anxiety
symptoms and disorders (Morrell & Cohen, 2006; Morissette, Tull, Gulliver, Kamholz, & Zimering, 2007; Patton et al.,1998). Indeed,
epidemiological (Grant, Hasin, Chou, Stinson, & Dawson, 2004; Lasser et al., 2000), community (Hayward, Killen, & Taylor, 1989)
and clinical (Himle, Thyer, & Fischer, 1988; McCabe et al., 2004; Pohl, Yeragani, Balon, Lycaki, & McBride, 1992) studies have found
that daily cigarette smoking is more common among those with anxiety and depressive psychopathology compared to those
without such problems. Other studies have found that smoking, particularly at higher rates, increases the risk for developing and
maintaining clinically-significant anxiety and depressive symptoms (Breslau & Klein, 1999; Breslau, Novak, & Kessler, 2004;
Goodwin, Lewinsohn, & Seeley, 2005; Isensee, Wittchen, Stein, Höfler, & Lieb, 2003; Johnson et al., 2000; Korhonen et al., 2007;
McLeish, Zvolensky, & Bucossi, 2007; Steuber & Banner, 2006). There is also evidence to suggest daily smokers experiencing high
levels of anxiety and/or depressive symptoms tend to experience more severe withdrawal sensations (Breslau, Kilbey, & Andreski,
1992), resulting in more difficult and less successful quit attempts (Anda et al., 1999; Zvolensky et al., in press). Such findings
demonstrate the clinically-significant relations between negative emotional vulnerability and tobacco use.
Addictive Behaviors 33 (2008) 1416–1424
⁎ Corresponding author. The University of Vermont, Department of Psychology, 2 Colchester Avenue, John Dewey Hall, Burlington, VT 05405-0134, United States.
Tel.: +802 656 8994; fax: +802 656 8783.
E-mail address: Michael.Zvolensky@uvm.edu (M.J. Zvolensky).
0306-4603/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2008.05.001
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