The Impact Of Smoking Motivation On Stress Perception And Its Underlying Mechanisms In Female Smokers

Smoking is a global health and public health issue.Currently,more than one-third of adults worldwide are smokers.In the past 50 years,smoking has become the leading cause of disease and death in the world.In China,there is a large number of smokers,with a smoking rate of 26.6% among people aged 15 and above according to the 2018 National Adult Tobacco Survey.The number of current smokers among residents over 18 is as high as 308 million,including 11.8 million female smokers,which is a very large smoking population.At the same time,due to changes in times,society’s tolerance for female smoking has increased,and more and more people have begun to accept female smoking behavior.Young women are also showing more positive attitudes towards smoking,indicating that the number of female smokers may further increase in the future.However,there is currently very little research on female smokers in academia.Previous studies have shown that there are significant differences in smoking behavior between male and female smokers.Compared to female smokers,male nicotine addiction is generally more severe,and they smoke more cigarettes per day.The behavioral differences suggest that female smoking psychology may have its unique characteristics.Therefore,it is necessary to conduct psychological research on female smokers to understand their unique smoking purposes and underlying mechanisms.This is important for proposing tobacco control measures for female smoking populations and achieving the tobacco control goals mentioned in the "Healthy China 2030" plan.Smoking can alleviate stress,which has been confirmed by previous studies.At the same time,many studies have shown that this stress-relieving effect is more pronounced in women.Compared to male smokers,women are more inclined to use smoking as a way to relieve stress and cope with negative emotions,but the underlying mechanisms are currently unclear.This study is based on previous research and social conditions,focusing on female smokers as the research subjects to understand and analyze smoking behavior from a female perspective.Interviews and surveys were conducted to explore the smoking habits of women,and a more in-depth quantitative analysis was carried out to investigate the mechanism of smoking as a stress relief method.To be specific:Preliminary research is exploratory in nature,using semi-structured interviews to conduct research on female smokers.135 eligible female smokers were recruited through the internet,and semi-structured interview outlines were prepared in advance for the interviews,which were recorded and transcribed.Finally,the text was analyzed through mining,encoding,and statistical analysis.It was found that the main purposes of smoking among women include "regulating stress and emotions," "pursuing physiological stimulation," "coping with addiction and habituation," and "promoting social interaction." Among these,"relieving stress" is the dominant purpose of female smoking.Further inquiry revealed that the enhancement of self-esteem brought about by smoking is an important mediating mechanism for relieving stress.Based on a preliminary study,research was conducted on the mechanism of how smoking relieves stress in female smokers,specifically examining the mediating role of self-esteem.A questionnaire survey was conducted on 512 female smokers using the Smoking Motivation Scale,Self-Esteem Scale,and Chinese Perceived Stress Scale.The results showed that(1)the smoking motivation of female smokers significantly negatively predicted their perceived stress,and(2)self-esteem played a mediating role in this relationship.Study 2,based on Study 1,takes a unique perspective by focusing on women and introducing female role attitudes as a moderating variable.It explores whether there are differences in the mediating effect of self-esteem on smoking motivation and perceived stress for female smokers with different types of female role attitudes.Using the Smoking Motivation Scale,Self-Esteem Scale,Chinese Perceived Stress Scale,and Female Role Attitudes Scale,a further questionnaire survey was conducted on 467 female smokers.The results show that:(1)the mediating effect of self-esteem is stable;(2)female work role identification can significantly moderate the mediating effect of self-esteem between smoking motivation and perceived stress;(3)female family role identification can significantly moderate the mediating effect of self-esteem between smoking motivation and perceived stress.In summary,female smokers exhibit unique behavioral and psychological characteristics.Smoking behavior has a distinctive gender color for women.This study explored the mechanism of smoking as a stress reliever from the perspectives of self-esteem and gender roles,and found that smoking behavior can help women perceive gender equality and empowerment more deeply,increase their self-esteem,and thus reduce their perceived level of stress to achieve the effect of smoking as a stress-reliever.Meanwhile,compared with female smokers who hold more traditional gender role attitudes,those who hold more modern and open gender role attitudes have a more obvious mechanism of smoking as a stress reliever.From a practical perspective,although the improvement of self-esteem and the relief of stress are beneficial to individuals,the cost paid by female smokers is the serious harm of smoking to their physical health.This also suggests that in future anti-smoking actions targeting women,more attention should be paid to female smokers’ self-esteem and the pressures they face in work and life,providing more care and motivation to quit smoking.