Boredom Susceptibility and Quit Smoking: The Role of Anxiety Symptoms

Abstract

Boredom is one of the main reported motives for smoking. However, scarce research has examined the relationship between boredom susceptibility and abstinence achievement in treatment-seeking smokers. The aim of this study is to examine the mediating effect of anxiety symptoms in the relationship between boredom susceptibility and abstinence at the end of a smoking cessation treatment. The sample was composed of 481 Spanish smokers who received a cognitive-behavioral treatment to quit (M_age= 45.51, SD = 11.16; 60.6% female). The Boredom Susceptibility subscale of the Sensation Seeking Scale Form-V and the Beck Anxiety Inventory were used. Pearson correlations and mediation analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between the study variables. Boredom susceptibility was significantly and positively correlated to anxiety symptoms, but not to abstinence. Anxiety symptoms were significantly and negatively correlated to abstinence. A significant indirect effect of boredom susceptibility on abstinence at the end of treatment through anxiety symptoms was found. There was no direct relation between boredom susceptibility and abstinence. These findings extend previous literature by showing that higher boredom susceptibility is associated with less likelihood to be abstinent at the end of the treatment through higher anxiety symptoms. These results highlight the relevance of considering the inclusion of boredom and anxiety management techniques in smoking cessation interventions.

Keywords:

• Boredom susceptibility
• sensation-seeking
• anxiety symptoms
• abstinence
• smoking cessation
• cognitive-behavioral treatment

Disclosure Statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Ethics Approval Statement

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. The Bioethics Committee of the University of Santiago de Compostela approved the study.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Project PSI2015-66755-R and Project PID2019-109400RB-100/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and co-financed by FEDER (European Regional Development Found).

Notes on contributors

Daniel Suárez-Castro

Daniel Suárez-Castro, PhD student in Neuroscience and Clinical Psychology, University of Santiago de Compostela, and therapist of the Smoking Cessation and Addictive Disorders Unit (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain). His research interests are related to smoking cessation treatment and smoking cessation Apps.

María Barroso-Hurtado

María Barroso-Hurtado, PhD student in Neuroscience and Clinical Psychology, University of Santiago de Compostela, and therapist of the Smoking Cessation and Addictive Disorders Unit (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain). Her research interests are related to smoking cessation treatment, mHealth and smoking cessation.

Carmela Martínez-Vispo

Carmela Martínez-Vispo, PhD, Associated Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology of the University of Santiago de Compostela, and therapist of the Smoking Cessation and Addictive Disorders Unit (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain). Her research interests are related to smoking cessation treatment, health psychology, depression, and smoking comorbidity.

Elisardo Becoña

Elisardo Becoña, PhD, Professor in Clinical Psychology, and Director of the Smoking Cessation and Addictive Disorders Unit, University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). His research interest areas are psychological treatment of smoking, cannabis, cocaine, gambling, and new technologies.

Ana López-Durán

Ana López-Durán, PhD, Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology of the University of Santiago de Compostela, and coordinator of the Smoking Cessation and Addictive Disorders Unit (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain). Her research interests are related to additive behaviors, and psychological treatment of smoking, cannabis, and cocaine.