Emotional effect stroop and smoking behavior in adolescents. Efecto emocional stroop y comportamiento tabáquico en adolescentes.

Abstract

In order to determine the relationship between verbal interference produced by words related to tobacco consumption and self-reported smoking behavior in adolescents, 164 secondary school students were exposed to a computerized task based on the emotional Stroop paradigm; the Smoking Behavior Scale was also responded. High scores in interference to negative words associated to smoking, helped to identify female students with high susceptibility to smoking, whereas male experimenters had higher rates of interference to positive words associated with smoking. This study concludes that from adolescence, people develop attentional biases related to tobacco consumption, that are differential for boys and girls, and that the emotional Stroop paradigm could be useful for assessing different levels of risk for tobacco consumption among teenagers.