“Incidence of Some Oral-Based Habits among College Students and Their Correlations With Use of Oral Stimulants”, 1993-06-01 (; similar):
This study explored the incidence of 3 personal habits and their correlates with popular tensional outlets.
The 108 men and 202 women college students estimated how often they bit their fingernails, picked their noses, chewed on pencils or other objects, used specific tobacco products, used specific caffeine products, chewed gum, and exercised. Also, they rated their happiness on a 7-point scale in Likert format.
The fingernail-biting incidence observed here was higher than was reported in previous samples of young adults, and more men than women were nail-biters. More men than women admitted to nose-picking; and about 61% of persons of either sex reported being occasional object-chewers. Men were more likely to exercise, use tobacco products, or consume iced tea than were women but were less likely to chew gum. The intercorrelations among the habits were not statistically-significant, and they were unrelated to lower self-reports of happiness. Both men and women who were object-chewers reported drinking greater amounts of cola beverages; otherwise, the relationships between these habits and product uses were not statistically-significant.
…The reported incidence of nose-picking was unexpectedly high; however, it must be remembered that there were no previous reports as to the incidence of this behavior and these figures include any form of nose-picking activity. The sex difference may be due to women being more heavily socialized against overt displays of such activity. Subsequent studies of this practice using other age groups would be needed to evaluate just how widespread is the behavior.
The low intercorrelations among the different oral habits or product uses also suggest that there is little evidence for persons having a multiplicity of oral habits. The data indicated that performing regular exercise did not correlate statistically-significantly with these habits so it is unclear whether some people both exercise and use these outlets in dealing with tension or whether these behaviors may not serve as “tension outlets.”
The present results suggest these behaviors are relatively common in this sample of college students. The use of the common stimulants did not correlate either with the 2 oral activities or with nose-picking. However, consumers of greater quantities of cola beverages were also more likely to chew on objects. This particular result is consistent with an excess stimulant interpretation of the presence of these habits. However, since neither nail-biting nor nose-picking correlated with quantity of cola beverage consumption, it seems unlikely that these habits might reflect simple overstimulation.
Since the correlations between self-ratings of happiness and the practice of each of these habits were uniformly low and non-statistically-significant, the mere presence of these behaviors does not allow us to view the performer as necessarily unhappy. Further investigation should address whether these behaviors are linked to other potential indices of maladaptation instead of being simply socially discouraged behaviors that have no implications beyond their lack of attractiveness.