Cigarette Smoking and Coping Strategies with Stress in Young Adults of Larestan

Stress is a universal phenomenon experienced by all human beings. Stress can result from both positive and negative experiences, and it can have physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual consequences. Stress and strategies to cope with it are considered as two important factors in smoking. The purpose of this study was to investigate strategies for coping with stress in young adults smokers. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on the male population in Lar city in south of Iran, from 23 October, 2014 to 19 April, 2015. After screening based on the inclusion criteria, 348 smoker males aged 20 to 40 years old, were selected. In order to collect the data, the Farsi version of Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) was used. Descriptive and analytical statistical tests, such as one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-pair, independent t test, Kruskal-Wallis, chi-square, and Pearson correlation coefficient with significance level of P ≤ 0.05 were used to achieve the study objectives. The mean age of the samples was 29.53 ± 5.92 years, and they consumed an average of 10.52 ± 1.47 cigarettes per day. In terms of educational level, 39 (11.2%) of the subjects were illiterate and most of them had primary (37.4%) and middle school education (31.6%). The mean score of coping strategies in the problem-focused and the emotion-focused group were 25.30 ± 5.34 and 39.24 ± 11.75, respectively. There was a statistically significant correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the type of emotion-focused coping strategies (r = 0.153 and P = 0.003). There was no significant correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the problem-focused coping method (r = -0.065 and P = 0.223). The results of this study indicate that smokers are more likely to use emotional-focused strategies, and higher education in smokers may lead to increased use of problem-solving strategies. Therefore, it is recommended to encourage awareness and education in urban planning.