Using motives for smoking to distinguish between different college student smoker typologies

Relatively little is known about how to categorize different types of smokers, especially occasional smokers. Because of the prevalence of occasional smoking among college students, the current study aimed to gain an understanding of the different typologies of smokers on campus. To accomplish this, a latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted using 17 motives for smoking items (N = 327). The LCA revealed that four smoker groups were present: (1) addicted smokers who endorsed smoking due to pleasure and habit/addiction; (2) stress smokers, who endorsed smoking to relax, to reduce levels of stress, and to regulate mood; (3) social smokers, who endorsed smoking because of social factors such as to fit in or because friends smoke; and (4) nonendorsing smokers, who had a low endorsement for all the items. An additional LCA with covariates revealed that age of initiation, current smoking patterns, smoker self-classification, and quit likelihood differentiated these groups of smokers whereas current age and alcohol use did not. These typologies should be considered when designing interventions for occasional smokers.