Unveiling the psychological mechanisms of mutual help groups for addiction recovery: The role of social identity factors.

The effectiveness of mutual help groups (MHGs) in promoting addiction recovery has been widely acknowledged. However, the psychological mechanisms underlying the impact of MHGs remain somewhat uncertain. Drawing on a social identity perspective, this study investigated a sequential mediation model in which social support is posited as a driving factor that enhances abstinence maintenance through group identification, recovery identity, and self-efficacy. A sample of 820 smokers, participating in a 6-month collective smoking cessation programme which included access to an online help group, completed measures of social support, group identification, smoker/ex-smoker identity, and self-efficacy at the programme's outset. Smoking abstinence was assessed 6 and 9 months later. The findings supported the proposed model, indicating that social support was positively associated with MHG identification, which, in turn, was related to a stronger recovery identity. Subsequently, recovery identity was associated with increased self-efficacy, and indirectly, with smoking abstinence at both measurement times. Additional analyses testing alternative mediation models further supported the validity of the proposed model. These findings suggest that social identity factors play significant roles in accounting for the effectiveness of MHGs for addiction recovery.

Cohabitation with a smoker and efficacy of cessation programmes: the mediating role of the theory of planned behaviour.

OBJECTIVE: The present research sought to examine whether cohabitation with a smoker undermines smoking cessation among people engaged in a cessation programme and whether the components of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) act as mediating mechanisms. DESIGN: A prospective longitudinal study with online questionnaires was conducted among smokers living in Switzerland who enrolled in a 6-months smoking cessation programme. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cohabitation with a smoker and the TPB constructs were assessed 10 days after the start of the programme (T1; N = 820). Smoking abstinence was measured at T1, and at 3-months (T2; N = 624) and 6-months follow-ups (T3; N = 354). RESULTS: Results showed that living with a smoker decreased the odds that smokers remained abstinent throughout the cessation programme. Furthermore, we found that cohabitation was negatively associated with subjective norm. Afterwards, subjective norm predicted intention to maintain smoking cessation, which, in turn, predicted smoking abstinence. Such mediation effects persisted at each time point. CONCLUSION: The present research provided evidence that living with other smokers at home can lead to greater risks of relapsing among people engaged in a cessation programme. We discussed the role of smoking-related norms in the efficacy of cessation interventions.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2022.2041638 .

How to increase first-time donors' returns? The postdonation letter's content can make a difference.

BACKGROUND: Retention of first-time donors is pivotal for blood collection centers. The present study built on research showing the importance of donor identity among regular donors and sought to compare the effectiveness of various communication strategies on return rate. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Postal letters were sent to a large sample of first-time whole blood donors (N = 1219) a few weeks following their first donation. Four versions of this letter were differently constructed in a way to boost the acquisition of donor identity (i.e., by including information about their ABO and Rh(D) blood group, emphasizing the salience of donor identity, offering a keyring with personalized information, or specifying the percentage of those sharing the same ABO and Rh(D) blood group). One version with no identity-related information served as a control condition. Participants' subsequent blood donations were tracked for 5-22 months after receiving the letter. RESULTS: Survival analysis showed that the return rate was significantly higher among those who had received information about the percentage of the country's population with the same ABO and Rh(D) blood group (in comparison with the four other versions). There was no significant effect on the blood type rarity. CONCLUSION: Blood collection centers could orient the strategy employed to communicate with first-time donors to improve donors' retention. Arousing a sense of social identification with others with the same blood type may reveal a promising avenue.

Does a Low-Cost Act of Support Produce Slacktivism or Commitment? Prosocial and Impression-Management Motives as Moderators.

Increase or decrease in subsequent action following a low-cost act of support for a cause can be predicted from both commitment theory and the slacktivism effect. In this paper, we report on three studies that tested type of motivation (prosocial vs. impression management) as a moderator of the effect of an initial act of support [wearing a badge (S1) and writing a slogan (S2 and 3)] has on support for blood donation. Small-scale meta-analysis performed on data from the three studies shows that activating prosocial motivation generally leads to greater support for the cause after an initial act of support compared to the control condition, while the effect from impression-management motivation can either be negative or null.

Taking advantage of multiple identities to reduce defensiveness to personally threatening health messages.

A host of studies have shown that self-relevant health messages may result in increased defensiveness and rejection of protective recommendations. Drawing on research showing that multiple identities offer psychological resources to deal with identity threats, we sought to examine whether the salience of an alternative identity before people are exposed to a personally relevant health message may buffer the threat and reduce defensive responses. Two studies were conducted on samples of daily smokers asked to read an antismoking message before completing a range of measures of defensiveness. Half of the participants had an alternative identity made salient beforehand (vs. no salience condition). Consistent with our hypotheses, Study 1 (N = 90) showed that this manipulation significantly reduced defensiveness to the message. Study 2 (N = 95) additionally showed that such effects only occurred when the alternative identity overlapped highly with the threatened identity. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Cessation rates from a national collective social network smoking cessation programme: results from the 'I quit smoking with Facebook on March 21' Swiss programme.

Background Programmes for collective smoking cessation, based on the British model Stoptober, are proposed by public health units in many countries. There is a need for data estimating the rate at which participants in these programmes are successful in quitting smoking. We report a prospective study carried out as part of a large-scale collective cessation programme conducted in Switzerland in 2017. Methods 1112 participants among the 7008 smokers enrolled in the collective cessation programme were recruited before the start of the attempt. Continuous abstinence was measured 10 days, 3 months and 6 months after the start of the attempt. Participants who dropped out at follow-up were considered to have failed the attempt (worst-case scenario). Results The continuous abstinence rate was at least 37.9% at 10-day follow-up, 18.8% at 3-month follow-up and 13.1% at 6-month follow-up. Similar levels of continuous abstinence as the worst-case scenario were found in sensitivity analyses including those whose quit attempt started before the beginning of the programme and where multiple imputation was used to replace dropouts. Sensitivity analyses using complete cases or an indicator of abstinence which allows occasional lapses found around double the abstinence rates. Conclusions Our results support the potential usefulness of large-scale collective cessation campaigns and suggest that such programmes based on social networks are promising areas for future smoking cessation programme activity.

Accounting for the Consequences of Tobacco Dependence on Cravings, Self-efficacy, and Motivation to Quit: Consideration of Identity Concerns.

Tobacco dependence has been found to increase smoking cravings, and reduce both self-efficacy and motivation to quit. The present research proposes to test the hypothesis that such negative consequences are related to identity concerns and should thus appear more strongly in dependent smokers with a high (vs. low) smoker identity. In two correlational studies, daily smokers (Study 1: N = 237; Study 2: N = 154) were assessed for tobacco dependence, smoker identity, self-efficacy, craving to smoke (Study 1), and motivation to quit (Study 2). Among smokers who declared to be strongly dependent, those scoring high in smoker identity reported more smoking cravings (ß = .28, p = .008, 95% CI [0.084, 0.563], $ {\upeta}_p^{{}^2} $ = .03) and less motivation to quit than those scoring low (ß = -.58, p = .003, 95% CI [-1.379, -0.282], $ {\upeta}_p^{{}^2} $ = .06). Smoker identity was unrelated to these variables among non-dependent smokers (ps > .40). The relationship between tobacco dependence and self-efficacy was not affected by smoker identity (ps > .45). Through these studies, we provided evidence that the implications of tobacco dependence on smoking maintenance and difficulties in quitting may be, in part, explained by identity mechanisms.

Psychological predictors of the use of complementary and alternative medicines during pregnancy within a sample of Swiss women.

Past works have witnessed increased prevalence of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) among women during pregnancy. This study aimed to identify psychological antecedents underlying CAM use through the exploration of various predictors. Drawing upon the literature on the use of CAM in contexts unrelated to pregnancy, this research explored the role of various predictors: perceived stress, beliefs about medicine, health locus of control (HLOC), health literacy, bullshit receptivity, and belief in conspiracy theories (CT). 376 Swiss women were recruited to complete a web-based questionnaire in which the use of different kinds of CAM was investigated. We performed hierarchical regression analyses with backward method to assess the overall variance explained by the predictors, as well as their unique contributions. We measured the number of CAM used during last pregnancy and frequency of use. Analyses showed that CAM use was positively associated with perceived stress, beliefs about medicine, internal HLOC, and belief in CT. In contrast, negative relationships were found with external HLOC, bullshit receptivity, and health literacy. By illuminating such factors, this research contributed to explaining why women may be tempted to choose CAM in place of conventional medicine, which may be of particular interest for health professionals in the planning of communication strategies aimed at limiting risks associated to their use during pregnancy.

Tobacco dependence and smoking cessation: The mediating role of smoker and ex-smoker self-concepts.

Tobacco dependence is a complex phenomenon in which physical and psychological components go hand in hand, and it is often considered as one of the major barriers to quit smoking. However, we still need to increase our understanding of the processes through which tobacco dependence relates to smoking cessation. This research aimed to investigating whether changes in smoker versus ex-smoker (abstainer) self-concept account for the association between tobacco dependence and successful smoking cessation. We used longitudinal data drawn from the evaluation of a smoking cessation intervention. A sample of smokers enrolled in the program filled in a questionnaire at the beginning of the intervention (baseline: N = 779), 6 months later (i.e., at the end of the intervention: T1, N = 532), and 9 months later (T2; N = 387). We assessed tobacco dependence (baseline), smoker versus ex-smoker self-concept (baseline, T1, and T2) and smoking status (baseline, T1 and T2). Tobacco dependence was negatively associated with smoking cessation maintenance, and this effect was mediated by changes in self-concept: The greater tobacco dependence, the lower the likelihood that former smokers develop an ex-smoker self-concept during the program, which results in relapse at T1 or T2. Successful smoking cessation interventions should provide strategies preventing the negative effects of tobacco dependence on identity transition.

Accounting for the consequences of tobacco dependence on cravings, self-efficacy, and motivation to quit: consideration of identity concerns

Tobacco dependence has been found to increase smoking cravings, and reduce both self-efficacy and motivation to quit. The present research proposes to test the hypothesis that such negative consequences are related to identity concerns and should thus appear more strongly in dependent smokers with a high (vs. low) smoker identity. In two correlational studies, daily smokers (Study 1: N = 237; Study 2: N = 154) were assessed for tobacco dependence, smoker identity, self-efficacy, craving to smoke (Study 1), and motivation to quit (Study 2). Among smokers who declared to be strongly dependent, those scoring high in smoker identity reported more smoking cravings (Beta = .28, p = .008, 95% CI [0.084, 0.563], = .03) and less motivation to quit than those scoring low (Beta = -.58, p = .003, 95% CI [-1.379, -0.282], = .06). Smoker identity was unrelated to these variables among non-dependent smokers (ps > .40). The relationship between tobacco dependence and self-efficacy was not affected by smoker identity (ps > .45). Through these studies, we provided evidence that the implications of tobacco dependence on smoking maintenance and difficulties in quitting may be, in part, explained by identity mechanisms

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