Resumen de Helping Relationships for Smoking Cessation: Grounded Theory Development of the Process of Finding Help to Quit

J. Susan Andersen, Donna C. Owen

• Background: Some cigarette smokers report supportive people from their social network are helpful when they attempt to quit smoking.

  Objective: This qualitative study set out to explain the process of quitting smoking cigarettes, with specific attention to the question of whether the help of another person was important.

  Methods: Grounded theory was used. Participants were volunteers who responded to a flier posted on a health sciences center campus. Purposeful sampling was used as data were analyzed. Transcripts of interviews conducted with 16 participants of diverse demographic backgrounds were analyzed.

  Results: Interpretive analysis of coded transcripts revealed three major guiding constructs supporting the process of finding a helper to quit smoking: (a) seeking out helper qualities, (b) building a helping relationship, and (c) constructing the environment.

  Conclusion: The use of a helping relationship for smoking cessation was important for smokers in the study to successfully quit. A very salient quality, constructing the environment, emerged as one of the most important aspects of the process of quitting smoking.