Psychosocial Factors Associated with Smoking Cessation Stage among Korean Female Call Center Workers

Background: Female call center workers are exposed to intensive emotional labor, which may increase vulnerability to smoking as a means of coping with work-related stress. However, little is known about how psychosocial factors differ according to smoking cessation stage in this high-risk occupational group. This study compared social nicotine dependence, smoking attitude, smoking abstinence self-efficacy, emotional labor, cognitive emotion regulation (CER) strategies, and social support according to smoking cessation stage among female call center workers and identified factors independently associated with smoking cessation stage.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 186 female call center workers with a current or past smoking history were classified into an abstinence group (n=71), a quit-intention group (n=73), and a no-plan group (n=42). Data collected using structured self-report questionnaires were analyzed with the chi-square test, one-way analysis of variance with Scheffé post-hoc tests, Pearson correlation analysis, and multinomial logistic regression.Results: Social nicotine dependence increased stepwise across the abstinence (13.66±5.97), quit-intention (19.26±5.67), and no-plan (22.86±4.72) groups (F=39.05, P<0.001), whereas smoking abstinence self-efficacy showed the reverse gradient (35.31±8.16, 25.74±8.17, and 22.81±8.68, respectively; F=37.91, P<0.001). Adaptive CER strategies were lower in the no-plan group than in the abstinence group (P=0.027), whereas emotional labor and social support did not differ significantly among groups. In multinomial logistic regression, higher social nicotine dependence (odds ratio [OR]=1.10 and 1.26 for the quit-intention and no-plan groups, respectively) and lower smoking abstinence self-efficacy (OR=0.89 for both groups) were independently associated with membership in the two current-smoker groups relative to the abstinence group.Conclusions: Social nicotine dependence and smoking abstinence self-efficacy were independently associated with smoking cessation stage among female call center workers. Workplace smoking cessation interventions tailored to smoking status and quit intention should focus on reducing smoking-rationalizing beliefs and strengthening abstinence self-efficacy to facilitate progression toward smoking abstinence.