Development and validation of a contextual behavioral distress intolerance task in cigarette smokers

• Main Authors: DiBello, A.M (Author), Farris, S.G (Author), Zvolensky, M.J (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2018
• Subjects: adult; affect; analysis of variance; Analysis of Variance; Article; cigarette smoking; Cigarette Smoking; comparative study; construct validity; controlled study; distress intolerance; Distress intolerance; drug craving; emotional stress; etiology; experimental behavioral test; feasibility study; female; Female; frustration; human; human experiment; Humans; male; Male; Measurement; mental stress; middle aged; Middle Aged; Negative affect; Persistence; physical stress; physiology; predictive validity; psychologic test; Psychological Tests; psychology; psychomotor performance; Psychomotor Performance; randomized controlled trial; reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; Socioeconomic Factors; socioeconomics; stress; Stress, Psychological; task performance; tobacco dependence; Tobacco Use Disorder; Tobacco withdrawal; validation process; validation study; withdrawal syndrome
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Introduction: Distress intolerance, an individual's perceived or actual inability to withstand negative emotional or physical distress, contributes to the maintenance of smoking. However, there is limited understanding of the contextual factors that impact distress intolerance in general or among smokers specifically. This study aimed to adapt and test a computerized behavioral persistence task that requires re-typing a passage while adhering to specific instructions (Contextual-Frustration Intolerance Typing Task [C-FiTT]). C-FiTT was designed to model contextual factors that influence distress intolerance, negative affect, and smoking urges. Method: Daily smokers (n = 550) were recruited through the use of Qualtrics Panels. Using a 2 × 2 + 1 experimental design, participants were randomly assigned to one of four C-FiTT conditions that crossed task difficulty (low or high difficulty) with passage content (neutral or tobacco withdrawal text), or a neutral control group. Results: C-FiTT produced an average persistence time of 94.1 ± 114.3 s and 64.7% of participants self-terminated the task. C-FiTT also produced small to medium sized-increases in negative affect and smoking urges. Between-condition comparisons indicated that the high-difficulty C-FiTT produced shorter behavioral persistence, greater self-termination likelihood, and larger increases in negative affect and smoking urges. The combination of high-difficulty and withdrawal content resulted in the shortest persistence time, 100% self-termination rate, and largest increases in negative affect and smoking urges, compared to other conditions Conclusions: Findings provide initial evidence for the validity of C-FiTT in smokers within the context of tobacco withdrawal at low and high levels of task difficulty. Avenues for refinement and use of C-FiTT are discussed. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd