Examination of predictors related to the stages and transitions of smoking behavior in adolescents / by Connie Dalton.

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.