The experience of giving up smoking was described as encompassing 7 major categories
Question What words and concepts are used by people to describe their coping strategies within the first 10 days after giving up smoking?
Design
A taxonomy inductively derived from narrative accounts.
Setting
A large midwestern city in the US.
Participants
36 participants (mean age 41 y, 58% women) who were recruited from smoking cessation programmes. The mean number of attempts to stop smoking was 4.7. Participants smoked a mean number of 24 cigarettes each day and had begun smoking at a mean age of 17 years.
Methods
Participants were randomly assigned to 5 time blocks of 3 consecutive days within the first 10 days after they had stopped smoking. Participants recorded thoughts, feelings, and actions for each coping episode as they occurred using a hand held tape recorder. A coping episode consisted of any thought or behaviour that was used to avoid smoking or to reduce or prevent the urge to smoke. The …
