A Smokers Body Image

Uma Nair and Bradley Collins, from Temple University, and Melissa Napolitano, who attended George Washington University, did a study on body image exposure on smoking between physically active and sedentary female smokers. They did this procedure with thirty-seven female smokers in the ages ranging from eighteen to twenty-four years old. The procedure started out with a two hour nicotine withdrawal, then the participates would have a baseline cigarette. After the baseline cigarette, the females would sit through baseline questionnaires, a body-image exposure session, and a post- exposure questionnaire. The last thing they would do is a post exposure cigarette, and then the procedure was finish.

            For the body- image exposure part of the procedure, the women would stand in front of a full-length mirror, in their choice of clothing, such as a swimsuit, and they would describe themselves to the researcher. They would tell them want they liked, what they did not like, what they wished could change, and they would scale each body part from a one, being the most satisfied, to a ten, being the most dissatisfied.

            The researchers wanted to measure the physical activity of the women, the body and weight concerns, and the mood and anxiety of the smoker.

            They got these participants by putting up flyers around dorm rooms, campus health centers, and putting the flyers in undergraduate classrooms. The majority of these participants were white, thirteen percent were African American, and ten percent were Asian.

            The writers discuss how the importance of this study was to  “better understand the influence of physical activity on smoking urge among weight- concerned female smokers.” They reported that none on the women engaged in exercising on the day of the study. In this study, the writer states “the weight- concerned women smokers, who are physically active, might have a less risk of smoking in weight concern- eliciting contexts compared with sedentary smokers.”

Collins, B., Nair, U., & Napolitano, M. (2013).  Differential Effects of a Body Image

Exposure Session on Smoking Urge Between Physically Active and Sedentary

Female Smokers.  Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27(1), 322-327. 

Abstract