Features of personality traits in smoking students — residents of the Northern territories of Russia

Abstract

AIM: To identify psychological factors of the risk of tobacco addiction among students of the European North of Russia.
 MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study involved 137 students of Arkhangelsk state universities, comprising 37 men and 100 women aged from 17 to 25 years, preselected for a number of characteristics (born in Arkhangelsk or the Arkhangelsk region; raised in a full, socially prosperous family; without financial and household problems; without chronic somatic and neurological diseases). Identification and analysis of tobacco smoking experience were carried out by retrospective self-assessment of the subjects. The psychological status of the respondents was determined by assessing the indicators of the Freiburg multifactorial personality questionnaire (FPI); accentuations of temperament and character, suggestibility, frustration, irritability and resentment; adventurousness, behavioral, social, professional, economic, political activity, and social destructiveness. The WilcoxonMannWhitney method and Fishers F-criterion were used for statistical analyzes.
 RESULTS: In the group of smoking men, high values of hyperthymia (Me=18 units), masculinity (Me=8 units), sociability (Me=9 units), behavioral activity (Me=7 units), and social activity (Me=7 units) were recorded. In the group of smoking women, high values of exaltation (Me=24 units), masculinity (Me=8 units), sociability (Me=9 units), and social activity (Me=7 units) were recorded.
 CONCLUSION: This study reports, for the first time, the features of personality traits in smoking boys and girls permanently residing in the Northern territories of the Russian Federation. Psychological factors of the risk of tobacco addiction formation in boys and girls permanently residing in the Northern territories of the Russian Federation have been determined.