Examining gender differences in received, provided, and invisible social control: an application of the dual-effects model

Abstract

The dual-effects model of social control not only assumes that social control leads to better health practices but also arouses psychological distress. However, findings are inconsistent. The present study advances the current literature by examining social control from a dyadic perspective in the context of smoking. In addition, the study examines whether control, continuous smoking abstinence, and affect are differentially related for men and women. Before and three weeks after a self-set quit attempt, we examined 106 smokers (77 men, mean age: 40.67, average number of cigarettes smoked per day: 16.59 [SD = 8.52, range = 1–40] at baseline and 5.27 [SD = 6.97, range = 0–40] at follow-up) and their nonsmoking heterosexual partners, assessing received and provided control, continuous abstinence, and affect. With regard to smoker's affective reactions, partner's provided control was related to an increase in positive and to a decrease in negative affect, but only for female smokers. Moreover, the greater the discrepancy between smoker received and partner's provided control was the more positive affect increased and the more negative affect decreased, but again only for female smokers. These findings demonstrate that female smokers' well-being was raised over time if they were not aware of the control attempts of their nonsmoking partners, indicating positive effects of invisible social control. This study's results emphasize the importance of applying a dyadic perspective and taking gender differences in the dual-effects model of social control into account.

Keywords:

• provided social control
• received social control
• invisible social control
• smoking
• gender
• dual-effects model of social control

Funding

The first author is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation [grant number PP00P1_133632/1]. This project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation [grant number 100014_124516].

Notes

1. This study was part of a larger longitudinal study. Based on these data, the research team has pursued other unique theoretical questions in another publication with a different focus and different data subsets (Ochsner et al., 2014).

2. This study was a correlational study in nature and due to the low-success rates in unsupported quitting, sample size was powered for numbers of cigarettes smoked as a continuous outcome measure. We chose the dichotomous measure of continuous abstinence (West et al., 2005) as outcome variable because the ultimate goal of social control attempts of nonsmoking partners is abstinence in the smoker. However, with a sample size of 100 participants we did not have sufficient statistical power to detect effects with the dichotomous outcome continuous abstinence (McClelland & Judd, 1993). Thus, results on smoking cessation are to be considered with caution.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: The first author is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation [grant number PP00P1_133632/1]. This project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation [grant number 100014_124516].