[The styles of coping in stressful situations and the strain of psychological complaints in relation to tobacco smoking in senior secondary school adolescents].

INTRODUCTION: A stress-coping style is a relatively constant tendency to apply specific methods of coping with a situation perceived as stressful. The study examined the links between stress-coping styles and tobacco smoking among young people. The strain of psychological complaints was also considered. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between frequency of tobacco smoking and stress-coping styles and strain of psychological complaints.

METHODS: The presented data came from the studies conducted in the Institute of Mother and Child in 2011 among 997 students of senior secondary schools of various types. The average age of the surveyed was 16.6. Selected scales and questions from the CHIP-AE questionnaire were used. The surveyed were divided into three groups: non-smokers, occasional smokers, frequent smokers. The scale of psychological complaints was used. The CISS questionnaire was used to examine stress-coping styles. Summary indexes of stress-coping styles were devised; the following styles were identified: task-oriented, emotion-oriented, distraction-oriented and social diversion-oriented. A single-factor variant analysis was used.

RESULTS: It was concluded that of the surveyed adolescents, 55.6% had never smoked tobacco, 16.1% smoked occasionally and 28.4% smoked frequently. The percentage of frequent smokers was higher in boys (32%) than in girls (25%). A link was established between tobacco smoking and selected stress-coping styles as well as the strain from mental complaints. It was concluded that parallel to the rising frequency of smoking, the tendency increases to apply emotion-oriented, distraction-oriented and social diversion-oriented styles. The individuals who had never smoked had a lower index of the abovementioned stress-coping styles in comparison with the frequent smokers. No correlation was found between tobacco smoking and the task-oriented style. It was also determined that the frequent smokers, in comparison with the non-smokers, suffered more often from mental complaints (8.70 (SD=6.99) vs. 6.57(SD=6.05); p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Frequent tobacco use is related to a greater strain from mental complaints. Frequent tobacco smoking is also connected with the choice of stress-coping strategies which focus around one's own emotions and distractions, and are not related to making efforts aimed at solving the problem. It may be therefore assumed that tobacco smoking intensifies behaviours which make it impossible to solve a stressful situation.