Sammendrag
In Norway, the consumption of snus, a common smokeless tobacco product, appears to be characterised by marked gender and age differences. The clear majority of snus consumers are young and middle-aged men, while only a small percentage of younger women are using this product. The paper aimed at investigating to what extent these gender differences are related to gender role orientations (masculinity/femininity), and other psychological dispositions comprising hedonism, stimulation seeking, importance of appearance and importance of health, in a sample of Norwegians aged 18-40 years (N = 3,885). The results showed clear gender and age trends in snus consumption, with higher snus prevalence among men than women, and a general decline in snus consumption with age. Applying ordinal logistic regression analyses, masculinity, stimulation seeking and income were found to partially mediate the gender-snus relation, indicating that these variables could account for some of the gender differences in snus consumption. Moreover, hedonism was identified as a predictor of snus use behaviour, but did not operate as a mediating factor for gender and snus use in the sample. The present paper seem to be the first that quantitatively examines gender differences in snus consumption with the current psychological variables, and the paper can be considered a contribution to better understanding of psychological mechanisms underlying snus consumption. Implications for intervention work and future research are suggested.