Personality Traits and Exposure to Stressful Life Events Among Smokers and Nonsmokers

Nataå¡A Å Imiä,Kristina Sesar,Arta Dodaj

doi:10.3844/jssp.2014.162.171

Abstract

Early studies supposed that personality traits and studentsâ life, which include brings many social and academic changes, may be relevant factors in initiation and maintenance of smoking. The aims of this study were to investigate differences in personality dimensions, as well as exposure to stressful life events among studentsâ smokers and nonsmokers and finally to examine the predictive contribution of these variables to smoking status. The study was conducted on the sample of 200 students from the University of Mostar, with a median age of 21 (interquartile range, 3) who completed Goldbergâs Personality Questionnaire and Scale of stressful life events. The group of students who never smoke (N = 101) and the group of smokers (N = 99) took part in the study. The results have shown that personality dimension of neuroticism and stressful life events related to social alienation, academic failure and everyday social conflict differed the smokers and non-smokers group. The smokers had higher scores in comparison to non-smokers group of students. Neuroticism and stressful life events academic failure and academic maladjustment were also significant predictors to smoking status.

Highlights

According to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2002), tobacco smoke causes numerous respiratory and coronary diseases, as well as increased mortality
Kubicka et al (2001) showed that low conscientiousness in children was a significant predictor of smoking in adulthood, while neuroticism and extraversion were not
The lack of these studies was that they did not take into account some short-term stressors that persist for some time

Summary

Introduction

According to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2002), tobacco smoke causes numerous respiratory and coronary diseases, as well as increased mortality. Attention to biological and psychosocial risk smoking factors was addressed, personality characteristic were shown as the most powerful determinant of behavior. It has been established, in recent years, that five-factor model of Costa and McCrae (1992) is quite important in analyze different aspect of behavior. Numerous researches consistently demonstrate significant differences among smokers and nonsmokers in neuroticism and extraversion. Some authors (Gilbert and Gilbert, 1995) found that more neurotic individuals are less inclined to stop smoking and when coped with the recent social pressure they can feel greater need for nicotine products compared to individuals who are more emotionally stable. In the longitudinal study, Kubicka et al (2001) showed that low conscientiousness in children was a significant predictor of smoking in adulthood, while neuroticism and extraversion were not

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