Smoking and education: Do psychosocial variables explain the relationship between education and smoking behavior?

The effect of education, depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, and coping traits (approach-belief, monitoring-creating-executing, and self-regulating) were tested on smoking behavior among 574 young adult males. We hypothesized that depression, anxiety, and coping traits were mediators in the relationship between education and smoking. Univariate analyses showed a significant association between smoking behavior and depressive symptoms, higher trait anxiety score, and lower scores on approach-belief and self-regulating traits. Education was significantly associated with depressive symptoms and coping traits. Although we found significant associations between smoking and education, smoking and depression, and education and depression, the hypothesis was not supported. A similar pattern was found in the case of coping traits. A multivariate logistic regression showed that low education (OR = 4.29), severe depression (OR = 1.84), and low self-regulating coping traits (OR = 2.19) were independent risk factors for smoking. The relationship between education and smoking cannot be explained by these individual variables.