Targeting body image schema for smoking cessation among college females: rationale, program description, and pilot study results.
Smoking cessation for college women may need to explicitly address body-image concerns, but this pilot offers no efficacy data yet.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a smoking-cessation program for female college students who smoke.
The new twist: every session targets body-image thoughts.
They ran a tiny pilot to see if women would show up and like it.
No numbers on quitting success are given.
What they found
The program was doable and the women said it felt relevant.
No data on how many cigarettes were cut or if anyone quit.
How this fits with other research
Legenbauer et al. (2008) showed that five minutes of appearance-focused TV ads instantly worsens body image in young women.
That lab finding supports the idea that body-image triggers are powerful in this age group.
Tonnsen et al. (2016) remind us that anxiety and depression also sabotage quit attempts.
Put together, the papers say: if you ignore mood and body image, your stop-smoking plan may leak.
Why it matters
You now have a green light to ask college women how they think quitting will change their weight or looks.
Fold those answers into your treatment plan before the worry becomes a reason to relapse.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add two questions to your intake: "Do you worry that quitting will make you gain weight or change your looks?" and "How can we plan for that?"
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Smoking among young adults is a significant public health problem. Despite the negative health effects, many young women smoke for weight and body image reasons. Understanding the factors that prompt young women to initiate and continue smoking is important for designing smoking cessation interventions. The aim of the current article is to outline a potential pathway for smoking behavior among young women, specifically applying a cognitive bias framework previously used to describe disordered eating behaviors. This article provides the rationale for using two different treatments targeting body image schema among female smokers. The authors describe the development, feasibility, and acceptability of these two treatment approaches among a sample of female college smokers (N = 24). Preliminary pilot data are presented as well as the significance and implications for future clinical interventions.
Behavior modification, 2011 · doi:10.1177/0145445511404840