Perceived physical health and heart-focused anxiety among daily adult cigarette smokers: associations with affect-relevant smoking motives and outcome expectancies

Abstract

The present investigation examined heart-focused anxiety and perceived physical health in terms of affect-relevant cigarette smoking motives and outcome expectancies. Participants were a community sample of 140 adult daily smokers (81 women, mean age = 29.60 years, SD = 11.98). In terms of smoking motives, both heart-focused anxiety and perceived physical health incrementally predicted smoking for negative affect reduction motives above and beyond relevant covariates (gender, weekly alcohol consumption, daily smoking rate). Yet heart-focused anxiety, but not perceived physical health, was incrementally predictive of habitual motives, relative to the same covariates. With regard to smoking outcome expectancies, heart-focused anxiety was incrementally predictive of negative reinforcement outcome expectancies, whereas perceived physical health was not. Alternatively, perceived physical health was incrementally predictive of negative personal consequence outcome expectancies, but heart-focused anxiety was not. Findings are discussed in relation to the role of perceived health vulnerabilities in clarifying affect-oriented smoking motives and expectancies.