2University of Groningen,University Medical CenterGroningen,Departmentof Social Medicine

Abstract: The effect of personality (extraversion,neuroticism,psychoticism), self~esteemand senseof coherenceon smoking amonguniversitystudents(n =830, meanage20,5 years,data collected in 2004, Slovakia) was exploredusing logistic regressionseparatelyamongmalesand females.Higher extraversionplus, amongfemales,highernegativeself-esteemand lower mean-ingfulness, increasethe probability of being a smoker. It is importantto take into accountthe different function of personalityin healthpromotion.In this caseextraversionand negativeself-esteemseemto be the risk factors,while meaningfulnessseemsto be a protectivefactor with regardto smoking. Key words: smoking,extraversion,neuroticism,psychoticism,self-esteem,senseof coherenc