Learned resourcefulness and smoking cessation revisited

Even though many young addicted smokers profess a desire to quit, majority of them are unsuccessful in their attempts. A major goal was to determine whether successful quitters are better equipped cognitively and behaviorally to deal with the adverse effects associated with the cessation process than unsuccessful quitters, because they possess a larger repertoire of learned resourcefulness skills.

Undergraduate university students, consisting of 69 never-smokers, 59 successful quitters and 61 unsuccessful quitters, completed Rosenbaum's (1980) Self-Control Schedule assessing one's general repertoire of learned resourcefulness skills. Daily smoking rate, age started smoking, years smoking, quit attempts, difficulty quitting, quitting importance, motivation, self-efficacy and use of smoking self-regulatory strategies also were compared for the smoking groups.

Never-smokers and successful quitters were significantly more resourceful than unsuccessful quitters. Even though both smoking groups smoked the same daily rate and started smoking at the same age, unsuccessful quitters in comparison to successful quitters viewed quitting smoking as less important and as more difficult, were more extrinsically motivated to quit, less efficacious, and used fewer self-regulatory strategies during their quit attempts.

The discussion highlights the prominent role that SCS scores, self-efficacy and especially perceived quitting difficulty play in the smoking cessation process.

Low resourceful smokers having difficulty quitting may find workshops on general life skills beneficial. Concurrently providing them with specific smoking cessation strategies may further serve to enhance these smokers' self-efficacy.