Antecedent and attendant stimuli in smoking: implications for behavioral maintenance and modification

Considerable research exists on biological and psychological explanations for smoking and evaluations of interventions. This research, which supports a psychological model of smoking maintenance, identified situations commonly associated with smoking and noted implications for intervention. College student (N = 34) and general public (N = 48) men and women smokers were questioned about the frequency, onset age, and daily situations associated with their habit. No sex differences were found in either sample for responses, and correlations between smoking rate and onset age or years of smoking were not significant. Chi-square analysis indicated significant differences between samples in frequency with which common situational stimuli were associated with smoking. This behavior may be maintained as functionally autonomous, and effective intervention must sensitize smokers to elicitive situational stimuli as well as the smoking response.