| dc.description.abstract | The present study examined adolescent smoking in relation to six different
groups of smoking determinants, including: the social environment,
pharmacological factors, social bonding, social learning,
personality/intrapsychic determinants, and knowledge, belief, attitude, and
behavior variables. In order to summarize these constructs, factor analysis was
performed on the last four groups of determinants. Longitudinal associations
between these predictors and three stages of smoking were assessed separately
among adolescents aged 10 to 14 and IS to 19, and predictors related to three
different smoking transitions were also examined. Factor analyses revealed that
the predictor variables loaded on three higher order constructs, including: 1)
deviance and social influences, 2) beliefs, attitudes, and behavior, and 3) social
bonding. Family smoking, social bonding, beliefs, and social norms
discriminated between stages of smoking differentially, depending on age.
Whereas, social learning variables predicted the transition from non-smoking to
initiation best, and increasing consumption among initial and experimental
smoking was best predicted by social learning, as well as belief and attitude
variables. Normative social influences and pharmacological variables predicted
the transition to decreasing consumption among maintenance smokers. | |
