Separation Individuation and Transitional Object Use in Daily Smoker Adolescents

• Published in: Substance use & misuse 2021, Vol.56 (14), p.2252-2258
• Main Authors: Ateş, Burçin Özlem, Kadak, Muhammed Tayyib, Hoda, Emel Derya, Demir, Türkay, Doğangün, Burak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescents; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Child; Child development; Childhood; Children; daily smoking; Humans; Identity formation; Individuation; Measures; Mirroring; Nonsmokers; Nurturance; Object Attachment; Personality Inventory; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; separation; Separation anxiety; Separation-Individuation; Smoker-Nonsmoker interactions; Smokers; Smoking; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teachers; Teenagers; Trait anxiety; transitional object; Transitional objects
• ISSN: 1082-6084; 1532-2491
• DOI: 10.1080/10826084.2021.1981393

Smoking is an important problem in adolescence. Early developmental trajectories are also associated with cigarette smoking. The present study aims to evaluate the separation-individuation process and use of transitional objects in daily smoker adolescents. The research included 97 adolescents who were daily smokers and 210 adolescents who were nonsmokers. Transitional object assessment questionnaire, strength and difficulties questionnaire- adolescent form(SDQ), children's depression inventory(CDI) and state-trait anxiety inventory for children(STAI-C), separation and individuation test of adolescence(SITA) were applied. SITA subscales scores of engulfment anxiety, need denial, and rejection expectancy was higher and separation anxiety, teacher enmeshment, nurturance seeking scores were statistically significantly lower in smoker adolescents than nonsmokers. In logistic regression analysis, separation anxiety(odds ratio [OR] 0.93; 95% confidence interval[CI] 0.87-0.98), teacher enmeshment(OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.88-0.98), practicing mirroring(OR 1.05; 95% CI 1.02,1.08) and rejection expectancy (OR 1.06 95% CI 1.02,1.11) were found to be predictors of daily smoking. The use of a childhood transitional object for feeling tired and the use of an adolescent transitional object for feeling anxious and tired was found to be significantly higher in smokers. There are some differences in the process of separation-individuation and the use of transitional objects in the smoker group. This suggests that early developmental characteristics may be associated with smoking. Further studies are needed to better understand the causal relationship between smoking and the separation-individuation process and transitional object use.