THOUGHT SUPPRESSION AND SMOKING RELAPSE - A SECONDARY ANALYSIS OF HAAGA (1989)

Previous research indicates that use of cognitive coping strategies in high risk situations is positively correlated with smoking cessation maintenance. Basic research of self-control of unwanted thoughts, howe ver, suggests that mental coping efforts involving thought suppression should be ineffective. We evaluated this possibility by rescoring the articulated thoughts transcripts of 95 subjects from a one-year prosp ective study of smoking relapse (Haaga, 1989). Frequent use of cogniti ve coping tactics for reframing high risk situations (e.g. reminding o neself of negative consequences of smoking) predicted greater likeliho od of continuous abstinence in the following three months (49 per cent success for those above the sample median, 20 per cent for those belo w the median). This effect was marginally significant at a 12-month fo llow-up. By contrast, thought suppression showed no association with m aintenance of non-smoking. Discussion focused on complications in appl ying laboratory research on thought suppression and on reanalysis of c ognitive assessment protocols.