Relationships Between Drinking Motives and Smoking Expectancies Among Daily Smokers Who Are Also Problem Drinkers

Abstract

Objective: There is a high co-occurrence of problem drinking and regular cigarette smoking, and cognitive processes (e.g., motivation to use, expectations about the consequences of use) related to each are positively associated with one another. We explored drinking motives in relation to cognitive-based smoking processes among smokers with problematic drinking. We expected that drinking coping motives would be associated with smoking consequences related to negative reinforcement and negative personal outcomes and inflexibility of smoking behavior; observed effects for coping motives would be unique from shared variance with other motives and incrementally evident beyond the variance accounted for by tobacco-related health problems, smoking rate, negative affectivity, cannabis use, and gender.

Methods: The sample included 195 individuals recruited into a larger study of smoking cessation treatments (i.e., they were interested in quitting), who were heavy drinkers and smoked daily. Participants were primarily male (n = 122, 63%), fairly young (M_age = 30.3 years; SD = 12.46), and predominantly White/Caucasian (n = 175, 80%). Roughly 57% (n = 111) had at least one comorbid Axis I disorder, the most common being social anxiety (n = 21, 11%) and generalized anxiety disorder (n = 12, 6%).

Results: Coping drinking motives predicted negative smoking consequences, negative reinforcement, and smoking inflexibility. Enhancement drinking motives marginally predicted positive reinforcement. Conformity drinking motives predicted smoking consequences related to appetite/weight control. Social drinking motives predicted negative reinforcement and barriers to cessation and marginally predicted positive reinforcement.

Conclusions: Theoretical models and clinical activities focused on smoking cessation among problem drinkers may benefit from considering the role of drinking motives, particularly coping-oriented motives, to better understanding cognitive-based smoking processes.

Keywords:

• smoking
• alcohol
• cognition
• motivation

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by 1 R01 MH076629-01. NIMH had no direct role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication. The contents of this manuscript do not necessarily represent the policy of the NIMH, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.