Smoking, coping and health behavior among university students

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the stress-coping model of addiction (Wills & Shiffman 1985) is also applicable to smoking in the maintenance phase. or habituated smoking. The model predicts that smoking will be associated with stress, negative emotions and ineffective coping. In addition, the association between smoking and other health habits was investigated. The sample consisted of 726 Swiss university freshmen, who wm experiencing the stresses of their first samester. The findings supported the stress-coping model quite well-but only so for heavy smoking. Heavy smokers differed from non-smokers regarding stress, negative emotions, problem-focused coping and dysfunctional coping. For light to moderate smoking, the results wen more ambiguous. Light to moderate smokers differed from nonsmokers regarding stress and negative emotions, but only slightly so regarding coping. A comparison of health habits placed the three groups on a clear spectrum, with nonsmokers showing the hest and heavy smokers the poorest habits.