Dispositional mindfulness, affect and tobacco dependence among treatment naive cigarette smokers in Brazil.

INTRODUCTION: The current study examined associations between affective and smoking-related factors, and dispositional mindfulness among smokers seeking enrollment in a cessation program in Brazil. METHODS: Participants were first-time treatment seeking adult smokers (N=90) on a waiting list for a government-sponsored cessation program. Pearson's bivariate correlations assessed relationships between the primary outcome variable (dispositional mindfulness) and each explanatory variable (nicotine dependence, depression, anxiety, and state positive/negative affect). Linear regression analyses evaluated the unique contribution of each explanatory variable when controlling for the others. RESULTS: The sample (N=90) was predominantly female (n=71) and most (79%) had 11 or fewer years of education. In the final regression model, a total of 36.2% of the variance in dispositional mindfulness was accounted for by positive affect (B=0.81, p<0.001), negative affect (B= -0.44, p=0.02), and level of nicotine dependence (B=1.48, p=0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Positive and negative affect, as well as nicotine dependence, account for a significant and sizable amount of the variance in dispositional mindfulness. Future mindfulness interventions for smoking cessation should be designed to address individual differences in affect, as well as nicotine dependence, in order to better tailor treatment to address baseline differences in mindfulness.

A Utilização De Metodologia Grupal Em Pesquisa-Ação Participativa Com Travestis E Transexuais / The Use Of Group Methodology In Participatory Action Research With Transgender

Em um trabalho de extensão universitária em psicologia comunitária, desenvolvemos um grupo de apoio para pessoas travestis e transexuais. Nos ancoramos nas teorias feministas pós-estruturalistas, na pesquisa ação-participativa e no comprometimento político da psicologia com as populações marginais. Descrevemos o uso de uma metodologia participativa como estratégia de promoção da autonomia dos sujeitos, possibilitando enfrentamento de vulnerabilidades. Essa metodologia foca na construção coletiva da demanda a ser trabalhada de acordo com os participantes. Utilizamos a análise do discurso de Foucault como ferramenta analítica. Constatamos que investir na linguagem, nos espaços de falas silenciadas e nas articulações para minimizar os efeitos de desigualdade produzidos pelo contexto mostram-se importantes no fomento da autonomia e da ação dos sujeitos nas estratégias de transformação social

We developed in the university extension work at field of community psychology a support group for travestis and transsexual people. We are anchored in post-structuralist feminist theories, in participatory action research, and in the political commitment of psychology to marginalized populations. We describe the use of a participatory methodology such as a strategy of promotion the subject’s autonomy, allowing resistance in situations of vulnerability. This methodology focus in collective construction of the demand to be worked according participants. We realize that investing in language, silenced discourse spaces and in articulations to minimize the effects of inequality produced by the context are shown as important in the promotion of autonomy and protagonism of the community in the strategies of social transformation