The Pathways of Smoking and Stress: A Mediated Moderation Analysis of Personality, Family Conflict, and Social Disintegration among Different Types of Smokers

Background: Existing literature has tackled the problem of smoking from different angles with regard to psychology, stress, social interaction, and personality traits. There is insufficient evidence explaining the Big Five personality traits and their relation to different types of smoking alongside different psychological and social stressors. These relationships need to be understood to create efficient measures for smoking cessation programs. Aim: This study is designed to analyze the correlation between the different types of smoking and the Big Five personality traits while looking specifically at psychological stress, family conflicts, social, occupational, and financial stressors. Method: The research was conducted in a manner of a cross-sectional study. The sample group included 500 participants, all of which were heavy and casual/social smokers alongside non-smokers. Information was gathered using established psychological instruments that measure personality traits, stress, and social relations. Relationships between the types of smoking and personality traits, and stress were established by means of cross-tabulation and one-way ANOVA, as well as mediated moderation analysis. Findings: The results showed that heavy smokers had greater psychological distress along with higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness compared to light smokers and non-smokers. Family conflict, financial stress, and psychological distress was comparatively much greater among the heavy smokers. In the mediated moderation analysis, the intervening variable was personality traits between type of smoking and stress, while the moderating variable was social support. Some gender differences were also noted, as one observed their increased level of stress. Conclusions: The research illustrates profound impact of different stressors and personality traits on smoking behavior. Some form of personality intervention, in addition to social support interventions for smoking cessation, is necessary for more optimal outcomes.