Date of Award
5-2002
Honors Thesis Number
12238
Major
Psychology
Abstract
Past studies have suggested that lesbians are more prone than heterosexual women to smoke. This study examined whether different aspects of personality and temperament were predictors of tobacco use among lesbian smokers in comparison to lesbian nonsmokers. Participants consisted of 70 lesbians, 18 years or older, who completed an online survey containing the Big Five Inventory (BFI), the Gay Identity Questionnaire (GIQ), Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), and the Star Smoking Motivation Questionnaire (STAR -SMOQ). Results indicated that (1) there was a weaker correlation between smoking for weight suppression than has been reported in past studies of predominantly heterosexual women; (2) counter to past literature results on mostly heterosexual women, neuroticism was not a predictor of smoking or frequency in smoking; (3) more dependant smokers are more likely to be at higher stages of lesbian identity; and (4) that an overall rank ordering oflesbian motivations to smoke is more equivalent to heterosexual men than to heterosexual women.