The Role of Smoking-Specific Experiential Avoidance in the Relation Between Perceived Stress and Tobacco Dependence, Perceived Barriers to Cessation, and Problems during Quit Attempts Among Treatment-Seeking Smokers.

Despite the clinically-significant association between perceived stress and smoking, there is little understanding of the mechanisms underlying this relation. The present study examined smoking-specific experiential avoidance as an explanatory mechanism linking perceived stress and smoking, including nicotine dependence, perceived barriers to cessation, and problems reported during past quit attempts among treatment-seeking daily smokers (n = 365; 48.5% female; Mage = 38.02; SD = 13.10). Results indicated that smoking-specific experiential avoidance had a significant, indirect effect on perceived stress and the studied smoking criterion variables. The present findings provide initial empirical support that smoking-specific experiential avoidance may help explain how perceived stress is associated with smoking. These data suggest that there may be merit to targeting smoking-specific experiential avoidance during smoking cessation among smokers with elevated perceived stress.