Abstract
Objectives
In the United States, up to 70% of youth experiencing homelessness smoke cigarettes. Many are interested in quitting; however, little is known about psychosocial factors influencing smoking relapse in this population. This study, part of a larger project to develop an optimized smoking cessation intervention for youth experiencing homelessness, aimed to describe how psychosocial factors influence smoking relapse in this group.
Methods
This study describes the smoking relapse experiences of 26 youth tobacco users, aged 14–24 years, who were recruited from a homeless drop-in center in Ohio. We conducted semi-structured interviews to understand how stress, opportunity, and coping contribute to smoking relapse.
Results
Five themes emerged from the data: (1) smoking as a lapse in emotional self-regulation in response to stress; (2) smoking as active emotional self-regulation in response to stress; (3) social opportunities facilitate smoking in the context of emotion-focused stress coping; (4) problem-focused stress coping; and (5) opportunity facilitates smoking relapse.
Conclusions
Stress was a primary driver of smoking relapse among youth experiencing homelessness, yet social and environmental opportunities to smoke also precipitated relapse. Interventions to improve abstinence among this population should target foundational stressors, coping skills, social supports, and nicotine dependence.
Funder
Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute
Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute
Center for Tobacco Products
National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Cited by
3 articles.
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