Attachment Style, Perceived Loneliness, and Psychological Well-Being in Smoking and Non-Smoking University Students

ABSTRACT

The growing rate of smoking cigarettes among the youths necessitates examining its contributing factors. Accordingly, we aimed to compare smoking and nonsmoking university students in their attachment styles, perceived loneliness, and psychological well-being. To this end, we recruited 100 current smokers and 100 nonsmoking students by using a convenience sampling method from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. All participants completed the Adult Attachment Scale, Loneliness Scale, and General Health Questionnaire. Data analysis indicated that compared to nonsmokers, smokers had a more anxious attachment style and they felt lonelier. Moreover, current results showed that smokers suffered from higher rates of psychological problems than nonsmokers. These results suggest that smoking is influenced by a set of psychological factors and therefore, prevention and treatment programs targeting these factors may be effective in reducing the rate of smoking cigarettes among university students.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• loneliness
• psychological well-being
• smoking

Author Notes

Mojtaba Habibi is an assistant professor at the Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. His research focuses on risk and protective factors of high-risk behavior, including smoking cigarettes, drug use and alcohol consumption among youths.Farhad Hosseini is a master graduate of family therapy from Shahid Beheshti University. His research interests include drug use and consequent risk behavior among patients with substance use and developing family-based prevention programs for this group.Mohammad Darharaj is a master graduate of clinical psychology from Kharazmi University. He has an interest in psychopathology among substance abusers. In particular, he works on personal, social, and familial factors and consequences of substance among adolescents and young adults.Ali Moghadamzadeh is an assistant professor at University of Tehran, Iran. His research focuses on substance use, treatment implementation, and relapse prevention.Farhad Radfar is a master graduate of clinical psychology at Shahid Beheshti University. He now studies psychopathology of children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders, with a concentration on developing and implementing parenting programs.Yasaman Ghaffari has obtained her master's degree in general psychology from University of Essex. She has supervised the group therapy sessions among drug addicts at NHS in London, UK. She is also interested in examining factors which lead the youths toward substance use.