Emotion dysregulation and smoking outcome expectancies among Spanish-speaking Latinx adult cigarette smokers in the United States

Abstract

Although smoking expectancies are associated with numerous aspects of smoking among non-Latinx Whites, far less is known about how individual differences in emotion dysregulation relate to smoking expectancies among Latinx smokers. The present investigation therefore evaluated the role of emotion dysregulation in smoking outcome expectancies among Latinx adult smokers. Participants were 363 Spanish-speaking Latinx daily smokers (58.7% female, M_age = 33.3 years, SD = 9.81). Emotion dysregulation was significantly related to both negative reinforcement and negative personal consequences for smoking. These effects were moderate in magnitude and evident after adjusting for the variance associated with a wide range of factors. Unexpectedly, emotion dysregulation was also related to expectancies of appetite control and positive reinforcement. This study provides the first empirical evidence that emotion dysregulation is associated with a broad range of smoking outcome expectancies among Latinx smokers. Emotion dysregulation may be an important, yet underrecognized, smoking-cessation treatment target for Latinx smokers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).