Emotion dysregulation, fatigue, and electronic cigarette expectancies

Emotion Dysregulation and E-Cigarette Expectancies among College Student E-Cigarette Users

Background: E-cigarette outcome expectancies (i.e., beliefs about the expected consequences of e-cigarette use) are a key factor in motivating use. Emotion regulation difficulties have demonstrated significant associations with outcome expectancies; however, there has yet to be an examination of associations between specific emotion regulation difficulties and specific e-cigarette outcome expectancies, which could serve as targets for intervention efforts. Therefore, the current study sought to examine the unique predictive ability of specific emotion regulation difficulties in terms of e-cigarette outcome expectancies. Methods: Participants were 116 college student e-cigarette users (Mage = 19.72, SD = 1.88; 71.6% female) who completed self-report questionnaires for course credit. Results: Greater difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when experiencing negative emotions and fewer difficulties accessing effective emotion regulation strategies were associated with positive reinforcement outcome expectancies. Greater emotion regulation difficulties in general were also associated with negative reinforcement outcome expectancies, though there were no significant individual predictors. Conclusion: These results suggest that greater emotion regulation difficulties are associated with mood-related e-cigarette outcome expectancies, and targeting emotion regulation difficulties, particularly difficulty engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset, may be useful to incorporate into intervention efforts.

Pain interference among adult dual combustible and electronic tobacco users in terms of perceived barriers for quitting

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has become increasingly common among combustible cigarette users, and dual use may represent a more severe type of nicotine addiction. Experiencing pain is one prevalent domain that may be important to understand quit processes and behavior among dual users. Although most past research on pain and nicotine/tobacco has focused on combustible cigarette use, initial work on e-cigarette users has found that greater pain severity is associated with higher levels of dependence and negative thinking patterns about e-cigarette use. Yet, there has been no effort to explore the experience of pain among dual users in terms of perceived barriers for quitting combustibles or e-cigarettes. The present study sought to examine pain interference among dual combustible and e-cigarette users in terms of perceived barriers for quitting among 138 (45.9% female; Mage = 35.96 years, SD = 7.16) adult dual users (i.e., users of both combustible cigarette and e-cigarettes). Hierarchical linear regression models indicated that pain interference was significantly associated with both perceived barriers for cessation of combustible cigarettes and perceived barriers for cessation of e-cigarettes. Overall, the present investigation served as an initial evaluation of the role of pain interference in terms of perceived barriers for quitting combustible and e-cigarettes among adult daily dual users. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

E-Cigarette Use: The Effects of Psychological Vulnerabilities, Perceptions, and Intentions to Use E-Cigarettes

Little research has examined the effects that psychological vulnerabilities (i.e., difficulty with emotion regulation, depressed mood, distress tolerance) have on the perceptions of e-cigarettes, intent to use e-cigarettes, and actual e-cigarette use. Data were collected via an online survey from 837 adults (55.6% male, Mage = 29.2, 71.7% Caucasian). The two path analytic models predicting lifetime and current use fit the data well. Difficulty with emotion regulation was positively associated with depressed mood and negatively associated with distress tolerance, while distress tolerance was negatively associated with depressed mood. Depressed mood was positively associated with perceived benefits of e-cigarette use, and perceived benefits was positively associated with intent to use. Perceived benefits and intent to use were significantly associated with both lifetime and current use. Findings enhance our understanding of the effects that mood and emotion-related factors have on perceptions of, intent to use, and actual use of e-cigarettes, which may have important implications for prevention and cessation.

Emotion dysregulation, transdiagnostic vulnerabilities, and e-cigarette expectancies in a young adult sample

OBJECTIVE

Use of e-cigarettes is more common among youth with psychological distress. Negative affect reduction outcome expectancies (beliefs about ability of a product to reduce unpleasant emotional states) and emotional transdiagnostic vulnerabilities (maladaptive responses to emotional states common to multiple forms of emotional psychopathology) are both positively related to tobacco susceptibility and use. However, it is unclear if expectancies mediate the effects between emotional issues and use.

METHOD

College students aged 18 to 24 (N = 216; 79.6% female; 36.6% African American) completed an online survey with measures on e-cigarette negative affect reduction outcome expectancies (ENAROE), e-cigarette use, and the following emotional transdiagnostic vulnerabilities (ETV): difficulties in emotion regulation, distress tolerance (DT), positive/negative urgency, and positive/negative affect.

RESULTS

In individual predictor path analysis models, ENAROE mediated the relationship between ETVs and e-cigarette use. Expectancies (ENAROE) mediated 47.3% of the total relationship between positive urgency and use. Significant effects were found for a comprehensive model, in which negative urgency was related to higher ENAROE (b = 0.47, 95% BCCI [0.04, 0.96]), controlling for all other transdiagnostic vulnerabilities. Higher positive urgency was related to an increased likelihood of current use.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides a novel examination of expectancies as a potential mediator for current e-cigarette use via emotional vulnerabilities. Negative Affect Reduction outcome expectancies mediated the relationship between vulnerabilities and e-cigarette use, indicating that the association between positive urgency and e-cigarette use may be explained partially though emotional expectancies. Thus, expectancies are important targets for prevention and further ETV research.

Attentional Bias in Non-Smoking Electronic Cigarette Users: An Eye-Tracking Study

INTRODUCTION

This study examined attentional bias (AB) to e-cigarette cues among a sample of non-smoking daily e-cigarette users (n = 27), non-smoking occasional e-cigarette users (n = 32), and control participants (n = 61) who did not smoke or use e-cigarettes. The possibility that e-cigarette users develop a transference of cues to traditional cigarettes was also examined.

METHODS

AB was assessed using a free-viewing eye-gaze tracking methodology, in which participants viewed 180 pairs of images for 4 seconds (e-cigarette and neutral image, e-cigarette and smoking image, smoking and neutral image).

RESULTS

Daily and occasional e-cigarette users attended to pairs of e-cigarette and neutral images equally, whereas non-users attended to neutral images significantly more than e-cigarette images. All three groups attended to e-cigarette images significantly more than smoking images, with significantly larger biases for e-cigarette users. There were no between-group differences in attention to pairs of smoking and neutral images. A moderation analysis indicated that for occasional users but not daily users, years of vaping reduced the bias toward neutral images over smoking images.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, the results indicate that e-cigarette users exhibit heighted attention to e-cigarettes relative to non-users, which may have implications as to how they react to e-cigarette cues in real-world settings. AB for e-cigarettes did not transfer to traditional cigarette cues, which indicates that further research is required to identify the mechanisms involved in the migration of e-cigarettes to traditional cigarettes.

IMPLICATIONS

This study is the first attempt to examine attentional biases for e-cigarette cues among non-smoking current e-cigarette users using eye-gaze tracking. The results contribute to the growing literature on the correlates of problematic e-cigarette use and indicate that daily and occasional e-cigarette use is associated with attentional biases for e-cigarettes. The existence of attentional biases in e-cigarette users may help to explain the high rate of failure to quit e-cigarettes and provides support for the utility of attentional bias modification in the treatment of problematic e-cigarette use.